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SUCCESSFUL 



POULTRY KEEPING 



A TEXT BOOK FOR THE BEGINNER AND FOR ALL 
PERSONS INTERESTED IN BETTER POULTRY AND MORE OF 
IT-CONTAINS THE "SECRETS OF SUCCESS" BOTH FOR 
PLEASURE AND PROFIT— NEW AND VALUABLE INFORMA- 
TION ON ALL BRANCHES OF THE POULTRY BUSINESS 



ONE DOLLAR 



1907 

RELIABLE POULTRY JOURNAL PUBLISHING CO. 
QUINCV, ILLINOIS 



INTRODUCTORY 



may be accomplished by domestication and careful breeding, and 
man undoubtedly did wonderfully develop and improve by 
domesticating and breeding such wild fowl as came his way and 
took his fancy. 

That this is probably substantially true we have evidence 
in our present day standard varieties. More than half the 
varieties of fowls now illustrated and described in the American 
Standard of Perfection have been developed, or come into being, 
during the past half century and even within the past thirty 
years more than a dozen varieties have "arrived." Thirty years 
ago there were no Silver Laced Wyandottes, White Wyandottes, 
Buff Wyandottes, White Plymouth Rocks, Buff Plymouth Rocks 
nor Buff Leghorns in this country. During the last dozen years 
more new breeds have come into existence, and we now have 
Partridge Wyandottes and Plymouth Rocks, Columbian Wyan- 
dottes and still others, many of which are now described in the 
latest edition of American Standard of Perfection. The majority 
of these did not exist in the world twenty-five or thirty years 
ago. 

ESSENTIALS OF SUCCESS 

New varities are being created from time to time, some 
claim too numerously, others think not. Regardless of which is 

right, tlic constant aim may lie said to be improvement either in 

utility or beauty, or both, and the goal sought at all times in 
the breeding of every variety i- greater excellence, and the man 
or woman who is able to "mix the paints" and use "an eye for 
outline" to the besl advantage is certain to win a golden reward, 



for the competition is keen and there is a widespread and con- 
stantly growing desire to "own the best." 

THE STANDARD OF PERFECTION 

The American Standard of Perfection, an illustrated book 
of some 300 pages, is often referred to as the national guide of 
poultrymen. This book is published under copyright by the 
American Poultry Association, a national organization devoted 
to the advancement of the poultry industry. In the Standard 
book each class, breed and variety is set forth, and each and 
every variety is described with great care as to size, form and 
color, and every breeder is aiming to produce fowls from year 
to year that will come as near as possible to the standard require- 
ments. The illustrations of ideal fowls will prove a great help 
to all beginners. Wonderful progress has been made by intelli- 
gent and persevering breeders, and the choicest specimens from 
year to year are placed onrqxLibition at the annual poultry shows 
by the breeders themselves, or are sold to other breeders for, 
exhibition purposes. At these poultry shows (some 500 or more 
or which are held even' winter in the leading cities of the country, 
in addition to hundreds of poultry departments that are run in 
connection with annual district, state or county fairs), so-called 
poultry judges, or men who are well versed in the standard 
requirements and who make a business of judging poultry either 
by comparing two or more birds together, or by the use of what 
is called the score card, judge the fowls on exhibition, and cash 
premiums or ribbons are given to the birds that come nearest 
to perfection, that is, to the standard requirements. 




TABLE OF CONTENTS 

QUESTIONS ANSWERED IN THE SYMPOSIUMS 



The questions contained in the different Symposiums, together with the pages on which their answers will be found are: 



I -VALUE OF STANDARD BREDS 



PAGKS 

12-15 



Q. 1. What was the highest cash price you ever paid for 
a single specimen of standard-bred fowl? What was the highest 
price ever paid by you for two specimens? For three? For 
more than three on one order, stating number bought, and 
price pairl? 

Q. 2. What was the highest cash price you ever paid for 
standard-bred eggs for hatching, stating number and price? 

Q. 3. What was the highest cash price you ever received 
for a single specimen of standard-bred fowl? 

Q. 4. Why were you able to obtain the above named 
pi-ices, i. e., what special meiit did the specimen possess? (Note: 
... if it had received a high score, state score, tell by whom 
scored, also where and when. If it had won prizes, state where 
and when. 

Q. 5. Please state highest average price you ever received 
for any three standard-bred fowls of exhibition quality, sold 
by you since you have been in the poultry business. 

Q. (i. Please state highest average price you ever re- 
ceived lor any five standard-bred fowls of exhibition quality, 
sold by you since you have been in the poultry business. 

Q. "\ Please state highest average piice you ever re- 
ceived for any ten standard-bred fowls of exhibition quality, 
sold by you since you have been in the poultry business. 

Q. 8. Please state highest average price you ever re- 
ceived for any twenty-five standard-bred fowls of exhibition 
quality, sold by you since you have been in the poultry business. 



II —STARTING IN THE BUSINESS 



16-51 



Suppose you possessed your present kmiii'leth/r of the poultry 
business and were about to begin again: 

Q. 9. -Would you buy eggs or fowls with which to start? 

Q. 10. What would be your reason? 

Q. 11. What course would you advise for the farmer who 
wishes to improve his (lock of mongrels by the addition of pure- 
bred bl I with the object of raising better poultry for market? 

Q. 12. What course for the fanner who wishes to raise 
and sell fancy poultry as well as poultry for market? 

Q. 13. What course for the beginner with ample funds 
who wishes to keep a limited number of tine fowls and breed 
exhibition specimens? 

Q. 14. What course For the beginner without much 
money to invest who wishes to go into the fancy poultry business? 

Q. 15. What course for the beginner with ample funds 
who wishes to establish a large business in fancy anil market 
poultry? 



PAGES 

Q. 10. What course for the beginner with moderate 
means who wishes to establish a large business in fancy and 
market poultry? 

Q. 17. With your present knowledge and experience, if 
about to begin again, which breed or variety would you select 
if you were going into fancy poultry? 

Q. IS. What would be your reasons for this choice? 

Q. 19. Which variety would you select if you were going 
to embark in market poultry raising? 

Q. 20. Your reason for this selection? 

Q. 21. If you wished to combine both fancy and market 
poultry raising, what breed or varieties would you select? 

(J. 22. Your reasons for this choice? 



Ill -POULTRY HOUSE SYMPOSIUM 



60-67 



Q. 23. What style of house do you prefer, as a fancier, 
for breeding stock? 

Q. 24. What style of house for young stock? 

Q. 2.5. Do you favor the colony plan for housing young 
stock? 

Q. 2(i. If so, what style of colony house do you use? 



IV— THE MATURE FOWLS 



87-94 



Q. 27. What do you feed your breeding stock? 

Q. 28. How do you feed adult stock, also how often? 



V -INCUBATION AND BROODING 



108-117 



y. 29. If you use incubators, what proportion of all the 

chicks you hatch each season do you hatch artificially and about 
what per cent of the whole by the natural method,' 

Q. 30. If you use brooders, how many newly-hatched 
chicks clo you place in each brooder'.' 

Q. 31. What do you feed little chicks? 

Q. '-V2. How do you feed chicks, also ho« often? 



VI— SUCCESSFUL CHICK GROWING 



128-140 



Q. 33. How many head of growing -loc-k do you house 
and yard together? 

Q. 34. At what age do you separate the sexes? 

Q. 35. Do you find it advisable, later on, to separate 
the cockerels? 

<J. 36. If so, what method do you follow? 

Q. :!7. What do you feed growing stock? 

Q. 38. How do you feed growing stock, also how often? 



CONTRIBUTORS TO THE SYMPOSIUMS 



The numerals after the Contributor's name designat 
which each set of the contributor's answers will be found. 



the symposiums that are answered; the figures refer to the pages on 



Arnold, Aug. D. 
Baker, Benj. II 
Barrows, Geo. A 
Benedict, II. E.„ 
Bennett, Dr. 0. P. 

Bie. (leo. 11 
Blanehard, II. J 



[1-30; 



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CHAPTER ONE 

AMERICAN POULTRY INDUSTRY 

MAGNITUDE OF THE POULTRY BUSINESS 

UNCLE SAM'S HENS PRODUCE FIVE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS WORTH OF 
POULTRY AND EGGS ANNUALLY— SURPRISING CONSUMPTION IN LARGE EAST- 
ERN CITIES— NO DANGER OF OVERPRODUCTION— BETTER OPPORTUNI- 
TIES NOW FOR SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING THAN EVER BEFORE 




N THE report of the Secretary of Agriculture for 
1905 the farm value of the poultry and egg crop 
of the United States is estimated at about $500,- 
000,000. annually, while the total egg production 
of American hens is approximately 20,000,000,000 
of eggs a year. It is difficult for the human mind 
to appreciate these big figures, they are really so 
far beyond our usual mental horizon. Stop a bit and think, 
five hundred million dollars is just about the annual value of 
the entire United States wheat crop. If reduced to one dollar 
greenbacks it would, if the bills were placed end to end, reach 
twice around the world at the equator and enough left over to 
paper the mail route between New York City and the Falkland 
Islands. 

Then consider that gigantic egg crop. It is probable that 
statistics have not told the whole story by more than half, for 
the Statistical Bureau deals only with the farmer's hens, but 
even so the figures given are tremendous. Twenty billions of 
eggs is easy to write or say but what does it mean to you? It 
means that if those eggs, the yield of United States farmer's 
hens for one year, were placed end to end they would go around 
the earth at the equator thirty times and leave enough over to 
reach from New York City via San Francisco to Yokohama, 
Japan and thence to Pekin, China. At eight eggs to the pound 
the annual egg crop would reach the surprising weight of 1 ,250,- 
000 tons of eggs. Packed in cases of thirty dozen each and 
these egg cases placed closely together on a square of land con- 
taining one acre, completely filling it, they would make a solid 
column 4,829 feet high or 629 feet higher than Mt. Vesuvius. 

STRICTLY FRESH EGGS IN DEMAND 

Liability of the poultry business being overdone you may 
say after reading the above. Not a bit of it. Prices of eggs 
have been high and growing steadily higher during the past 
several years. Market poultry, live and dressed, commands 
appreciably better prices now than heretofore. The supply of 
the really good article in both poultry meat and eggs falls far 
short of the demand. In our large cities, during the winter 
months strictly fresh nearby eggs reach what are really prohibi- 
tive prices, except for the rich, and it is owing to the scarcity ol 
the product that prices are so high. Fifty, sixty ami even 
seventy-five cents a dozen at retail is no uncommon figure for 
best quality, fresh, nearby, fancy table eggs in our biggest and 
best Eastern city markets in the winter season. 

Even "case eggs", those shipped in from a distance, bring 
good returns the season through. Wo append herewith a table 
of wholesale prices of western eggs in New York market for the 
year 1905. Remember that these are not consumers' prices 
but prices paid by dealers who buy eggs in carload lots. These 
western eggs arc good quality fresh eggs shipped from a distance 



but never reach as high a figure as the nearby "fancy fresh laid' 
or "hennery eggs." 

WHOLESALE PRICES OF WESTERN EGGS IN NEW YORK 
MARKET FOR THE YEAR 1905 





RECEIPTS, 


Highest 


and Lowest Quotations 


MONTHS 


CASES 


for Western Fresh 




Market Prices 


per Dozen 


January 


159,821 




25 to 


30c 


February 


83,324 




30 to 


35c 


March 


411,1.65 




16 to 


35c 


April 


584,289 




17i to 


ISc 


May 


551,255 




17 to 


18c 


June 


.427,136 




15J to 


17c 


July 


314,097 




15i to 


ISc 


August 


280,482 




17i to 


21c 


September 


258,548 




20 to 


21c 


October 


207,513 




20 to 


25c 


November 


166,292 




24 to 


30c 


December 


137,209 




26 to 


30c 



Total receipts: 3,581,631 cases 

The average price of eggs for the year was 22 cents. 

It wall be noted that the heaviest receipts were during 
March, April, May and June, the period of lowest prices and 
also of greatest production, but at no time during this period of 
increased consumption did the prices fall below a profit making 
figure. 

What becomes of all the eggs? Those that go through 
the regular market channels are easily traced, but there are 
millions of dozens consumed by families who grow their own 
eggs and poultry and millions more that are used for hatching 
purposes; of these it is not possible to take account or even make 
a reasonable estimate as to numbers consumed. 

• 
WHERE THE EGGS GO 

The United States has a population of about eighty millions, 
and based on this the total consumption of eggs for the entire 
i'nited States is at the present time a little more than half an 
egg daily for each person, assuming that the entire egg product 
of the whole country is used for domestic culinary purposes. 
As a matter of fact, however, a very large percentage of .'«., 
the exact amount not being determinable, arc used for supplying 
the needs of factories, tanneries, bakeries and other trad 
that the actual consumption of eggs per capita tor domestic pur- 
poses in t lie United States must be very much less than is shown 

by these figures, I'" have the whole country adopt the s :ml ,. 

average per capita consumption of eggs as New York City wool. I 
require about a 50 per cent increase over the present propor- 
tions of our egg industry, making no allowance for increase in 
population. 

CONSUMPTION IN LARGE BASTBRN CITIES 
Our largest market. New York City, which has a population 

ol" about 3,600,000 reports receipts during the year 1 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



3,591,631 cases of eggs. Estimated at 30 dozens to the case 
this would be 107,748,930 dozens. 

Many thousands of dozens of eggs were undoubtedly con- 
sumed in Greater New York which do not appear in this record, 
and these should more than offset any of the reported number 
which may have been shipped out of the city. While it is not 
possible to get figures showing the actual consumption of eggs 
in Greater New York because of the large number of unreported 
shipments which must necessari- 
ly reach so large a city, and be- 
cause of the great variety of uses 
to which eggs are put in thetcades 
and for which no accurate data are 
procurable, the following figures will 
prove interesting although dealing 
mainly with averages. . «* i 

The estimated population of 
New York is 3,600,000, while the 
average daily receipts based on the 
above figures are 3,532,567. eggs, or 
an average consumption of nearly 
one egg per day for each inhabitant 
of Greater New York. Consuming 
as it did over 1,289,387,160 eggs in 
the year, Greater New York used 
practically 0J per cent, of all the 
eggs produced in the United 3 
during the year 1905. 

Figures Cor the (Sty of Boston, 
Mass., with its population of 600,- 
000, for the same year show total 
receipts of 1,393,456 cases, or prac- 
tically an average daily consump- 
tion of 2J eggs for each inhabitant. 
As Bhows by these statistics Boston 
takes 2) per cent, of the total num 
ber of eggs produced in the United 



FARMERS BENEFITTED 

In writing on the "Causes Af- 
fecting Farm Values", Mr. George 
K Holme- of the I . S. Bureau of 
Statistics, says of the poultry in- 
dustry: 

"It may seem a matter of small 
consequence to mention poultry and 
eggs as an instance (referring to the 
causes of unproved financial condi- 
tion of our farmers), but it should 
be remembered thai the \alues of 

these products now reach an annual 
figure of half a billion dollars or 
more, or an amount about equal 
to the value of the wheat crop. The 
price of eggs has been high and 




2 0.0 0,000,000 

EG05 PRODUCED EVERY YEAR 
BY HENS IN UNITED STATES 



THE BIRD HE I.IKES BEST 



Uncle Sam's Hens Produce enough Eggs each Year to make a 
Belt for the Earth at the Equator 30 Eggs wide if placed end for 
growing higher for several years, end, and enough to spare to make a line of Eggs from New York 
because consumers have wanted City to Pekin, China, via San Francisco. 
more eggs than have been produced. 

The exports are not worth mentioning. Apparently there is no 
limit to the consumption of fresh eggs at a moderate price." 

Not long ago when talking with a poultryman who makes a 
business of shipping eggs to market, we asked him what was the 
lowest price lie could afford to sell eggs at and still make a 
reasonable profit. He lives about one hundred miles from his 
market and makes two or three shipments a week. He assured 
us that he could produce eggs to sell at 12 cents a dozen delivered 



in his market, and still make a profit that would be satisfactory 
to him. 

THE POULTRY MARKET 

So far we have concerned ourselves with eggs alone, but 
every egg farmer must at regular periods renew his stock of 
laying pullets and dispose of a proportion of Iris adult stock, and 
if he raises the chickens himself he 
will also have a considerable num- 
ber of surplus male birds to dispose 
of. Lest he should become alarmed 
concerning the disposition of surplus 
birds, male and female, it may make 
his mind easier to know that dur- 
ing the past year (1906) prices of 
live poultry taking the country as a 
whole have been maintained higher 
and more steady than ever before. 
At the time of present writing (Sep- 
tember) roasting chickens are sell- 
ing alive at wholesale in the East 
at from 16 to 20 cents a pound, 
while old fowls range from 12 to 15 
cents, according to quality. 

The figures for New York City 
during the past year show a most 
surprising consumption of live poul- 
try. During the year 1905, 2,073 
carloads of five poultry are reported 
as having been received, the highest 
number received in any one month 
being in October, 271 carloads, the 
lowest in February, 105 carloads. 
The average wholesale price for live 
fowls for the year was 13$ cents per 
pound. These figures mean that 
New' York City consumes an aver- 
age of about 5h carloads of 16,000 
pounds each of live poultry per 
day. 

New York State is credited 
with having produced during the 
year 1905 — 74,516,028 dozens of 
eggs, not enough by nearly 33,000,- 
000 dozens to supply New York 
City alone. It wouW require prac- 
tically all of the total egg product 
of the states of Maine, Vermont 
and Connecticut, added to the en- 
tire egg production of New York 
State to supply New York City. 
According to the latest figures that 
we have been able to obtain the egg 
production of the states mentioned 
was estimated for the year 1905 
at,— Maine, 15,964,980 dozens; Ver- 
mont, 7,526,256 dozens, and Con- 
necticut, 9,551,316 dozens. 




Massachusetts is credited with an egg production for 1905 
of 15,514,356 dozens, not enough by over 26,000,000 dozens to 
supply the city of Boston only. 

Judging from the figures given herein and the fact that the 
population of the United States is increasing with surprising 
rapidity, the rate of increase between 1890 and 1900 having 
been shown to be nearly 22 per cent, there is little probability, 
for the present at least, of the supply even equaling the demand, 



8, 



AMERICAN POULTRY INDUSTRY 



and this should calm the tremors of 'those who fear overpro- 
duction. 

GROWTH OF THE MARKET 

The growth of the modern "market," as an institution, is 
an interesting study. It has been identical with the develop- 
ment of the great centers of population called cities. During the 
past quarter of a century there has been a somewhat alarming 
concentration of population in these centers, for we are con- 
fronted with a serious social problem when we contemplate the 
helplessness of these collections of thousands, tens of thousands 
and hundreds of thousands of people within an area that could 
not possibly feed a few hundred of them if they were to become 
dependent solely on the corporate limits of the different cities. 
Shut off the food supply from their numerous markets only 
forty-eight to ninety-six hours and they would become panic- 
stricken. To deny them coal is bad enough, but if they were 
deprived of their food supply even for a few hours, distress would 
be common, bringing terror to the hearts of millions. 

Nothing now in sight gives any promise of retarding the 
concentration of the people into cities, either in this hemisphere 
or in the old world. Increase of population and its concentra- 
tion in cities involves the future and indicates the possibilities 
of the poultry business on practical lines. To conclude that 
population will increase and that cities wall grow in size, is to 
concede that the market for poultry and eggs is to be a permanent 
affair that will increase with the population and grow with the 
cities. 

AN AGE OF SPECIALIZING 

Naturally, as poultry production became a distinct and 
important industiy, it was divided into branches representing 
special lines of effort. Mankind had entered upon an age of 
specialties and the poultry industry did not prove an exception. 
First, the growers of poultry were merely poultry keepers; now 
we have fanciers, duck growers, egg farmers, broiler raisers, etc. 
The development of these branches has been rapid, but not un- 
naturally so. It was natural that this development should re- 
sult from special attention, special effort and singleness of pur- 
pose. The practical result has been that we now have thou- 
sands of fanciers, including hundreds of specialty breeders, and 
more than one hundred separate and distinct varieties; where 
twenty-five and thirty years ago the common puddleduck, 
weighing three to four pounds, was the best this country pro- 
duced, we now have the Imperial Pekin, weighing ten pounds 
to the pair at ten weeks old, and ten to fourteen pounds each as 
adults, and have numerous "ranchers" who produce from five 
to fifty thousand ducklings annually and find for them a ready 
and profitable market; where three or four decades ago a flock 
of one hundred or more hens was a curiosity and the egg basket 
was seldom larger than a man's hat, we now b"-ve egg farms that 
each carry five, six and seven thousand laying hens, and the 
eggs are gathered in bushel baskets, five to ten baskets being 
required to gather the average daily yield, and when only a few 
years ago broilers, squab broilers, roasters, winter chickens and 
cations were strange words because seldom used, they arc now 
common expressions, while tons upon tons of expertly produced 
poultry meat arc consumed daily, and we have made only a 
fair start. 

The fancier, first and last , despite liis "fuss" and "feat hers," 
has been our good friend. What we have wanted, and asked 
for, he has supplied. We asked lor a "general purpose" fowl, 
and he gave US the Plymouth Kocks. We asked for more eggs, 
and he has given us the '"JOO-eggs per year lien" of several 
varieties. We asked for better squab-broilers, broilers and 
roasters, and he gave us the Wyandotte. We asked for more 



meat and this demand was soon supplied by increasing the 
weights of the Asiatics, by deepening the keels of Pekin ducks 
and the production of Mammoth Bronze Turkeys and Toulouse 
geese that tip the scales at twenty to forty pounds each — too 
large, by half, for the average family or bake-oven. 

AS AN INDEPENDENT BUSINESS 

Admittedly our equipment of tools at present is by no 
means complete and we have mastered only the first principles 
of the production of poultry and eggs in large quantities as an 
independent enterprise. The improvement of the utility breeds, 
the invention of popular sized, portable incubators and brooders 
and the designing of suitable brooding houses have given us a 
fair start, and we may look forward with confidence that great 
progress will be made during the next few years. No man can 
safely set a limit to what will be accomplished in this direction 
within the next decade. Ten years ago the poultry business in 
this country, as an independent business, was insignificant as 
compared with present achievements, but there is good reason to 
believe that the next ten years will show still greater progress. 
It cannot well be otherwise. Where one man was interested in 
the problem and trying to achieve results ten years ago, one 
hundred or more are now employed at the same task. These 
later comers include the men with years of experience who now 
are profiting by their reverses and successes, and the outcome 
cannot fail to be desirable. Today America leads the world in 
the knowledge and employment of successful methods of poult re- 
production on a large scale, and probably it will maintain this 
position. Other countries are adopting our methods, but we 
have secured a lead that will be hard to overcome. The financial 
risk is being eliminated from the business until it is not greater 
now than that involved in other business enterprises, and men 
of means and brains are taking up the work in rapidly increasing 
numbers. Nevertheless, it still remains a fact that nine out of 
ten, if not nineteen out of twenty of the average well-informed 
men of this and other foremost poultry growing countries have 
but slight conception of what actually is taking place in the 
poultry world. So much the better for those of us who have 
become interested in the subject, who have a correct idea of its 
importance and recognize the unmistakable signs of its rapid 
development and splendid possibilities. Snug fortunes are being 
made at the present time in different branches of the poultry 
business where ten and twenty year- ago this would have been 
utterly impossible, and today is but a promise of the superior 
conditions that will exist five, ten and twenty years hence. 

GOVERNMENT HAS BECOME INTERESTED 

No one realizes the truth of the foregoing more than the 
United States government and the various state governments. 
This came about largely a- a result of the facts disclosed by the 

census returns of 1880 and 1890. The Bureau of Animal In- 
dustiy took up the question eight or ten years ago and now 

regularly issues valuable bulletins for free distribution, giving 

detailed instruction and advice for use in the production of all 

increased amount of better poultry and the obtaining of a larger 

egg yield per lien. Probably twenty stat( S of the Union are now 

conducting poultry plants on their state experiment stations in 

connection with the stale agricultural Colleges. \' half a 

dozen or more of these colleges regular poultry classes havi 

instituted, the members ranging from twenty to thirty each 
term and including, as students, men and women who are above 

the average in intelligence, some of them being well educated. 
These students, as graduates, are finding positions as managers 
of poultry plants, as lecturers at Farmers' Institutes, or are 
entering the business themselves. Numerous other public and 

semi-public institutions, are conducting poultry plants and in- 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



structing t lie students or inmates in practical poultry work, with 
a view to qualifying them for earning their living and taking up 
poultry production as a business, either in the employ of others, 
or independently. All this is "something new under the sun," 
and clearly points to a bright future for the poultry industry in 
its several branches. 

STANDARD-BRED POULTRY 

Where 30 or 40 years ago poultry exhibitions were seldom 
heard of, now they are common. In the neighborhood of five 
hundred winter shows are held annually at the present time, 
while thoroughbred, or standard-bred poultry is exhibited every 
summer and fall at not less than a thousand state, district and 
county fairs, the exhibits ranging from a few specimens in an 
open shed to three or four thousand choice bird- shown in uni- 
form coops and housed in buildings, each costing S10,000. to 
(25,000. that have been built by the fair associations, often at 
state expense, expressly for poultry. Long lists of cash pre- 
miums are offered, some of the state fair associations appro- 
priating one, two and three thousand dollars each for this pur- 
pose, while of late years the great winter poultry exhibition-. 
like those held regularly in Boston, New York, Philadelphia and 
jo, have "tiered as much as five and six thousand dollars 
in cash premiums at a single -how , besides n« arly equal amounts 
in i lals. prize cups and other valuable trophies. 

THE POI LTRY I'RESS 

Not one whit le-s remarkable and important than the fore- 
going has been the development ol the poultry pre--. Today 
papers in the bnited state- are devoted exclusively t<> 
poultry than to any other branch of live -toek; in fact, we believe 

there are more poultry papers than there are horse, cattle, sheep 

and Swine paper- taken tOgethei We may be mistaken in tin-. 

but we do not believe we are. there are between sixty ami 

-evenly poultry paper- and we doubt if there are a- many other 

exclusively live stock papers all told, Furthermore, nearly 

even' farm paper. In fact, practically every one of them that has 
a large circulation, now conducts a regular poultry department. 
giving it, a- a rule, a- much space ami attention a- are given to 

cattle, horses, sheep or -wine. There i- no raid to apologize, 
at this time, and under present conditions, foi ion- interested 
in poultry, or tor being in the poultry business. 

DEVELOPMENT OF LARGF PLAN IS 



Ten and fifteen years ago one had to travel far to find half 
a dozen successful poultry plants that were being conducted on 
independent lines, while now two or three dozen of them can be 
visited in a week's journey if one knows where to go. Travelers 
riding by train or electric car through the New England states 
are prone to remark that about every fourth farmer or villager 
seems to be in the poultry business, for on either side of the 
"right of way" are to be seen poultry plants varying from two 
or three small houses to a dozen long ones built on the continu- 
ous-house plan, each house being one, two or three hundred feet 
long, with attractive parks filled with hundreds of standard-bred 
White Wyandottes, White Leghorns, Plymouth Rocks, Brahmas, 
or first crosses. 

Even persons who consider themselves well posted are 
frequently surprised to learn of some extra large plant that has 
sprung up unheralded and become an established success before 
its existence was discovered by the poultry papers or the writers 
on poultry topics. Men of perseverance started them on a small 
-cale and added to them little by little, thus building up large 
and profitable businesses on a safe and solid basis. 

With the specializing of the work of poultry production, the 
dividing of the business into branches and the development of 
large specialty plants, there has come a natural and highly im- 
portant improvement in the quality of the product. Twenty to 
thirty years ago no one had heard of "green ducks,'' meaning 
ducklings eight to twelve weeks old that have been specially fed, 
producing a most toothsome morsel, while now thousands of 
torrs of them are marketed in the eastern cities every spring and 
summer. On Long Island upwards of a hundred thousand of 
' hese l'i' l.lnj are produced within a radius of ten miles of the 
Utile village of Speonk. The Spring Lake Poultry Co., C. A. 
Stouffer, president. Harrisburg, Pa., produce- forty-five to sixty 
thousand ducklings each season, besides several thousand broil- 
er-, and Messrs. Weber Bros., of Wrentham, Mass., now have an 
animal output of oxer forty-five thousand ducklings. Broiler 
plants are in successful operation, with capacities ranging from 
ten to twenty-five thousand broilers per season; "winter chick- 
en-.'' or roasters, are produced by the ton in different sections 
of New England. New York, New Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania 
and Maryland, and capons, or "Philadelphia chickens," as they 
were originally called, are being produced in rapidly increasing 
quantities in New Jersey. New England and the middle west. 
Chicago is now a reliable capon market, and the poultrymen and 
farmers of Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa and Missouri are 
turning their attention more and more to the production of 
capons. 



Visible signs of the rapid development and present impor- 
tance of the poultry business are to be met on every hand, es- 
pecially in the states ea-1 of the Mississippi river, where the 
population The farther ea-t one goes the more 

numerous become tin' poultry plants, -mall and large. New 
England has been called "the cradle of the poultry business" in 

tlii- country, and for g 1 reason. Massachusetts and Rhode 

Island probably lead the Union in the production of poultry. 

area considered, but New York. New .hi -i \ . ( '..nnect ieut. eastern 

Pennsylvania and Ohio are following closely, while the great 
agricult ma I states of the Mississippi valley, notably Illinois, Iowa. 
Missouri and eastern Kansas aid Nil raska, are producii _ 
quantities ol poultry and eggs, as shown by tin' census returns 

ill 1VIO ami 1900. These large and fertile agricultural states 
have the credit of producing more poultry and eggs than the 
eastern states, but tlii- is not true in proportion to area. Further 
more, in the Mississippi basin the immense quantities of poultry 
and eggs are produced mostly in the old-fashioned way, on the 
ordinary farm by the farmer's wife and children, while farther 
east numerous poultry plants have sprung up whereon the pro- 
duction of poultry and eggs i- steadily being reduced to a science. 



NOW HAVE BETTER TOOLS 

While we are giving credit to the fanciers for increasing the 
number of varieties and developing the utility as well as the 
beauty points of the more popular breeds, while we are praising 
the poultry press and acknowledging the importance of poultry 
exhil itions, let us not overlook the fact that the improvement in 
the tools used by the poultryman has been invaluable to him in 
hi- work and progress. Poultry on a large scale, while not im- 
possible without the use of popular-sized incubators and re- 
liable brooding apparatus, is. nevertheless, impracticable, for if 
the hen has to be relied on to do the hatching she will not sit 
until she gets ready, and then not in sufficient numbers to give 
the business the necessary elements of certainty and proper 
management. Worse still, if the hen had to be relied on to 
brood the chicks or ducklings, her instinctive habits and erratic 
conduct would soon limit the ambitious poultryman to a com- 
paratively small plant and would make his life a burden to him 
on account of numerous uncertainties. The great duck ranches 
are proof positive of this general statement. They do not use 
as much as one hen for incubating. They use incubators ex- 



l(i 



AMERICAN POULTRY INDUSTRY 



clusively for hatching. Nor do they use a hen for brooding — 
not one. Their incubator cellars and brooding houses are built 
on the latest patterns and are as reliable, generally speaking, 
as an eight-day clock. They have far less trouble with their 
incubators and brooding apparatus than they have to make sure 
that the vigor and stamina of their stock are maintained. In- 
breeding and close confinement are decidely more threatening 
than any dangers that arise from the incubating and brooding 
apparatus. Much credit is due the incubator inventors and 
manufacturers of the country (this is especially true of America) 
for keeping pace with the demands of the progressive poultry- 
men who desired to establish large plants and could not have 
done so were it not for the improvement in the apparatus they 
must use. 

Practically all of the large, egg farms and broiler plants now 
use incubators and employ brooding houses for rearing the 
chicks. Hen's eggs hatch in incubators even better than duck's 
eggs, and numerous plants are in operation that require ten to 
twenty-five thousand eggs, including hen's and duck's eggs, 
every thirty days, in order to fill the machines. There are more 
than fifty poultry plants doing business in this country at the 
present time that use enough incubators to require five to thirty 
thousand eggs every three or four weeks. These plants could 
not exist if they had to depend on the hen-method of hatching 




An English type of portable col 
Edward Brown, of Reading College. 



PORTABLE COLONY HOUSE 

y house recommended by Prof. 



and raising chirks. An incubator is ready for work whenever 
fertile eggs can lie obtained. It is far easier to induce hens to 
lay out nl' season than to persuade them to sit before they want 
to. They will lay lung before they want to. They will laj loin; 
before they become broody, and by breeding in line for egg pro- 
duction we npw have flocks of hens that average one hundred 

ami fifty to two hundred eggs per year, where, according In the 
census returns of 1890 and 1900 the average American hen lays 

less than one hundred eggs per year. Estimate for yourself 
the great addition there will be to the national wealth of this 
and other count lies when the average egg yield of all hens thai 
are kept for laying purpose is increased lift y to seventy-live eggs 
per annum. Millions of dozens of eggs are now produced and 
sold so readily that they are like wheat in the granary or cash 
in the bank; once the work of the methodical poullrvman be- 



comes the common property of the poultry keepers of the farm 
and village, then the annual egg production of the nation will 
be increased 25 to 75 per cent and the national wealth will be 
increased in this important extent. The real importance of 
this national opportunity lies beyond our comprehension, for 
figures, when they mount into millions, are baffling, and this 
increase of the egg yield is a problem of that kind. 



IMPROVED POULTRY PRODUCTS IN* DEMAND 

Increase of wealth and population has resulted in a steadilv 
increasing demand for the finest products of the poultryman's 
art. Wealthy famlies, fashionable clubs, leading hotels and 
high-class restaurants now compete for the guaranteed strictly 
fresh eggs and gilt-edged dressed poultry of the expert and 
dependable poult ryman almost regardless of price, in fact, they 
will pay what they have to pay in order to get what they want. 
and they want the very best that can be produced, so that now 
we have not only broilers weighing one pound to two pounds 
each, but "squab" broilers weighing only three-fourths of a 
pound to a pound, and have roasters weighing five pounds each, 
that readily bring twenty to thirty cents per pound; also green 
ducklings that start early in April at thirty to thirty-five cent - per 
pound and range down to twelve cents late in August when the 
season closes. Strictly fresh eggs guaranteed bring a premium of 
five to ten cents per dozen above current prices. Expert poultry- 
men tag or stamp their specially choice products, wrap them 
neatly in tissue paper, tie them with dainty ribbons and get 
"a price and a half" for them, as compared with the ordinary 
grade of stock placed on sale; and the "professional" egg-fanner 
stamps his eggs with the dates on which they were laid, with the 
name of his farm, or with his initials, puts these eggs in one- 
dozen or two-dozen pasteboard boxes, guarantees them "strictly 
fresh" and obtains a satisfactory reward for his enterprise. 

Despite the greatly increased production, the prices of 
poultry and eggs have been higher the last year or two than ever 
before in the history of the industry. Increased wealth and 
population account for this, for it is a fact that in the eastern 
states where the production of poultiy and eggs is greatest, the 
prices invariably range from fifty to one hundred per cent higher 
than they do in the great agricultural district-, win-re the popu- 
lation is much less per square mile and the cities are -mailer. 

Only a few years ago the man who went into the poultry 
business, or talked of going into it, was considered a crank. 
while incubators were looked on as fakes, or as a fad. Every 
year, recently, has seen the business of poultry production 
steadily improve, reaching a higher plane and resting on a more 
substantial basis, while the manufacture of goods for poultry- 
men, including practical, reliable incubators and brooder-, bandy 
time, labor and money-saving appliances and helpful poultry 
supplies of various kinds has become a permanent and substan- 
tial business. The men who are in the poultry business today. 

or who contemplate taking it up a- a means to a livelihood, un- 
questionably have before them opportunities that will tax their 

enterprise and call in play all the ability and energy at their 

command. I he poultry business, in all its important branches 
is at present "a man'- business," and we are pleased to ol 

that men of ability and of means are "takinc. hold" in sufficient 
numbers. If these word- should chance to be read ten or twenty 
years hence, the middle-aged reader, if endowed with 

memory, will give us credit for being, a wise prophet, when a- a 
matter of fact we merely have noted a few of the plain 

of the times" that point out the direction of future achievement 
and rapid progress 



11 



CHAPTER TWO 



VALUE OF STANDARD BREDS 



FANCY FOWLS BRING HIGHEST PRICES 



"FANCY" MEANS FOWLS BRED BY EXPERTS TO STANDARD REQUIREMENTS COMBIN- 
ING BOTH BEAUTY AND UTILITY— SYMPOSIUM BY LEADING SUCCESSFUL BREEDERS 




ACTS fount, and in this symposium we present 
facts showing the high prices, — fabulously high 
when eompared with the popular idea of the value 
of "chickens", — that are paid from time to time 
for standard-bred fowls of exhibition quality. 

Leading successful poultrymen testify herein, 
concerning prices paid and received by them for 
first quality exhibition or fancy breeding fowls. 
No theory or dreaming here but good solid facts, positive 
evidence from well known breeders who produced and sold 

these best specimens oi standard-bred poultry. 

1 1 1 obtain this evidence we sent oul a list of eight questions to 
twenty old-time patrons of the Reliable Poultry Journal, 

men who have a national or international reputation as fanciers. 

owners, breeders and exhibitors of fine standard-bred, "fancy" 

poultry. Fifteen of the twenty have favored US with prompt 
replies in time for publication, and we are pleased to present 
them herewith. We quote and number the eight questions 
asked, the answers thereto are numbered to correspond and are 
-i\ in in condensed form: — 

THE EIGHT QUESTIONS 

Q. 1. What was the highest cash price you ever paid for 

mien of standard-bred fowl'.' What was the highest 

price ever paid by you -lor two specimens? 1 01 three? For 

mure than three on on.- order, stating number bought, and 

price paid? 

(J. 2. What was the highest cash pure you ever paid for 
standard bred eggs for hatching, stating number and price? 

(}. .". What was tin' highest cash price vim ever received 
!"i a sin^lr specimen of standard bred fowl'.' 

(J. 1. Why were vim able In obtain I he above named 

■ .uh.M special merit did the specimen possess? (Note: 
— if it had received a high score, state score, tell by whom 

Scored, also when' and when. If it had won prizes, state where 
and w b 

(J. 5. Please state highest average price you ever received 

I. ii : 1 1 1 \ three standard-bred fowls of exhibit inn quality, sold 

i.\ you since you have been in the poultry business. 

(J. <;. 1 'lease state highest average price you ever re- 
ceived for any five standard-bred fowls of exhibition quality, 
sold by you since you have been in the poultry business. 

Q. 7. Please state highest average price you ever re- 
ceived for any ten standard-bred fowls of exhibition quality, 
sold by you since you have been in the poultry business. 

Q. 8. Please state highest average price you ever re- 
Ceived for any twenty-live standard-bred fowls of exhibition 
quality, snld by you since you have been in the poultry business. 



A. & E. TARBOX, Yorkville, 111. 

BREEDERS AMD EXHIBITORS OF SILVER WYANDOTTES EXCLUSIVELY 



two, $50. For three, 860. 

.4. 2. $10. for thirty-nine eggs. 

.4. 3. Highest price received for single specimen, $40. 

.4. 4. We were able to obtain prices quoted because these 
birds were of high exhibition quality. The bird we received the 
highest price for ($40.) was a cockerel, winner of first prize at 
Philadelphia. We sold two pullets at $35. each, one won first 
prize at Chicago, December, 1904; the other won third at Chicago, 
December, 1904, and won fourth at the St. Louis World's Fair. 
We sold one pen to South Africa, consisting of five birds, a male 
and four females, for $75. This pen won first and Silver Cup 
at Kansas City, Mo. 

.4. 5. Highest average price received for three, $36.66 
each. 

.1. 6. For five, $28. each. 

.1. 8. For twenty-five, $18. each. 



ARTHUR G. DUSTON, South Framingham, Mass. 

SPECIALTY BREEDER OF WHITE WYANDOTTES 

. I . 1 and 2. I have not paid high prices for stock and 
eggs. I find it cheaper to breed them. 

A. 3. Highest price received for a single specimen, $150. 
I have refused higher prices than this, where I did not wish to 
sell. 

. 1 . -4. Bird was sold on its merit as described by me, with 
four pullets. They went to the west and were the highest 
scoring pen ever shown up to that time, in that city. The buyer 
lost the females and mated the male to other stock of my strain. 
That year he sold $900. in stock and eggs from the pen, besides 
replenishing his stock. 

.1. 5. Highest average price received for three standard- 
bred fowls, $115. each. 

.4. 6. If to one customer, at one sale, is meant, my 
answer is, $250. for one pen, four females and one male. This 
average would be $50. 

.4. 7. I sold from the New York Show, three years ago, 
two pens of five birds each, for $450. each, or $45. per bird. I 
have sold ten show birds, mostly males, at an average of $105. 
each. 

.4. 8. As I seldom get more than $100. for a bird I would 
not say that I could take you to my order book and show you 
twenty-five sales that would go much over $100. each, but if 
competition becomes much keener and the demand much sharper 
in Wyandottes, there is no telling where prices will go. 



I. K. FELCH, Natick, Mass. 

VETERAN JUDGE AND BREEDER OF BRAHMAS, WHITE AND BARRED 
PLYMOUTH ROCKS AND WHITE WYANDOTTES 



A. 1. Highest cash price paid for a single specimen, $50. 
For five specimens, $225. I have been a breeder and seller, not 
A, 1. Highest price paid for single specimen, $25. For a buyer. 



VALUE OF STANDARD BREDS 



A. 2. I have never bought eggs for this purpose; have 
preferred to buy fowls. 

A. 3. Highest cash price received for a single specimen, 
$100. Have sold thirteen male Brahmas for $100. each; one hen 
for $55. 

A. 4. Simply on their merit, as a result of people seeing 
them in my yards and buying them to exhibit. I sold four 
Barred Rock pullets for $30. each, to W. Haven, who showed 
them, won on them and refused $100. for the first prize winner. 
I scored her at 95 points the day I sold her and again when she 
was three years old, giving her the same high score. I sold two 
Light Brahma cockerels, one for $100., the other for $50. H. S. 
Ball scored the $100. bird at 96 points and the $50. bird at 
95 J points. 

A. 5. Have sold several trios for $150. each. I sold the 
get of one cock bird for an average of $75. each. This flock 
brought me $1,435. Enough birds were stolen from this flock, 
so that, at the same average, I would have received $2,235. from 
the get of that one pen. 

A. 6. Highest average price received for any five fowls, 
$250. Remember I have never been an exhibitor. It has been 
my patrons who have got the highest prices. The year I sold 
the whole flock at the $75. average per bird, these young birds 
were entered to win one hundred and one prizes and won eighty- 
seven out of the one hundred and one. 

A. 7. I sold a cock and eight females to one purchaser 
at $158. In those days this was a record price. As before 
stated, my birds were sold on their merits, early in the season, 
as a rule at living prices to those who wanted them for exhibi- 
tion purposes. 

A. 8. The pens have been sold at $50. to $100. for five, 
as a rule. Sold a pen for $65. that was never beaten. They 
were shown in Massachusetts, Maryland and Kentucky. The 
cock won first prize at one show during four years in succession. 
It has been my policy not to name prizes my patrons have won 
and I have never advertised to whom my birds were sold, for to 
do so would be to rob my customers of the prestige of winning. 
We have shown but a few times, and as a rule the winning birds 
were sold. The pen of Brahmas sold by us at $75. swept the 
deck at a Massachusetts exhibition on a score of 189| by Judge 
Ballou. The cock in that pen was never beaten in his life. 
His score was 95$ points. 

I could not do business if it were not for the breeding of 
exhibition specimens. The man who goes into poultry culture 
must kill half he raises, and sell them for poultry and eggs to 
pay current expenses. His profit must come from the exhibi- 
tion stock he raises and sells. 

If your birds win in your patrons hands you need not be 
worried about selling all the birds you can produce at good 
prices. Ten dollars for thirty or forty birds is not the question — 
the average sale is what tells the story. I have seen a cobbler 
who raised only thirteen clucks from fifteen eggs go into one 
of our largest exhibitions and he won three out of five first 
prizes. Quality is what tells, not quantity. 



JOHN HETTICH, Bowling Green, Mo. 

SPECIALTY BREEDER OF BLACK LANGSHANS 

.4. 1. Highest cash price paid for single specimen, 825. 
For two, $30. For three, $40. 

A. 2. Highest price paid for eggs for hatching, $15. for 
twelve eggs. 

A. 3. Highest price received for single specimen, $35. for 
a cock bird, $30. for a cockerel. 

A. 4. This bird had won first as cockerel, score 954 by 
Hewes at the Illinois State Show, 1901. Cockerel sold for $30; 
was unscored, sold him on description. Afterwards he won 



first prize and received a score of 94$ points by Ben. S. Myers. 
A. 5. For five fowls of exhibition quality, $35. Were 
worth $100. of any man's money. January 2d, 1904, they were 
scored, cockerel 95i, pullets 96J, 95}; hens 94$, 93J; pen 190}. 
Poultry with me is a side line. Am in the retail show business 
and breed Langshans for fancy. I handle them on three city 
lots, but have a good many raised for me on farms; 1 furnish 
the eggs and buy the stock back in the fall. 



GARDNER & DUNNING, Auburn, N. Y. 

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCK SPECIALISTS. 

A. 1. Highest cash price paid for single specimen, S200. 
For two, $350. For three, $450. 

A. 2. Highest price paid for eggs for hatching, one sit- 
ting, $10. 

A. 3. Highest price received for single specimen, $100. 
We have sold a number at this price, but to give a list of the 
prizes won would be to injure our customers. We never claim 
winnings of birds we sell, unless by customers' express permis- 
sion. Will say, however, that two of the birds here referred to 
won first prize at Chicago. 

A. 5. Highest average price received for three, S100. 

A. 6. For five, $100. each. 

A. 7. For ten, $50. each. 

A. 8. For twenty five, $50. each. 



J. C. FISHEL & SON, Hope, Ind. 

SPECIALTY - BREEDERS OF WHITE WYANDOTTES 

^4. 1. Highest cash price paid for single specimen, $50. 
For two, $100. For three, $150. 

^4. 2. Highest price paid for eggs for hatching, one sit- 
ting, fifteen eggs, $10.; a number of times .$25. per hundred. 

A. 3. Highest price received for single specimen, S150. 

A. 4. The cockerel was a very fine bird; was. bred from a 
strain of line-bred birds and well advertised. He was good 
enough to win in fast company. 

A. 5. We sold three cock birds for $300, i. e., $100 each. 

-4. 6. Highest price received for five, $150. 

A. 7. For ten, S20. each. 

.4. 8. For twenty-five, $18. each. 



W. R. GRAVES, Springfield, Mass. 

SPECIALTY BREEDER OF WHITE WYANDOTTES 

.4. 1. Highest price paid for single specimen, $35. For 
two, $60. 

.4. 2. Highest price paid for eggs for hatching, one sit- 
ting of fifteen eggs, $10. 

.4. 3. Highest price received for single specimen. s_'nn 

.4. 4. Won first cock and special for best shaped male at 
Madison Square Garden, January 1903. Used as a model by 
Mr. F. L. Sewell, in making illustrations for the American 
Standard of Perfection. 

.4. 5. Highest average price received for three, $133. 

A. 6. For five, $110. 

.4. 7. For ten, $82.50. 

.4. 8. For any twenty-five, $48. 



J. H. DOANE, Gouveneur, N. Y. 

BREEDER OF SING1 E COMB BLACK MINOR! IS 

.4. l. Highest price paid for single specimen, - 

.1. 2. Highesl price paid for eggs for hatching, 13 Minorca 

ogss at S3. 



M 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



.4. 3. Highest price received for single specimen, $75. 

.4. 4. Cock was bred in the purple and won first at Madi- 
son Square Garden, in 1902. F. B. Zimmer was the judge. A 
son of this bird won first the next year, but I lost him, with 
nearly all my other Minorcas, in a fire the following April. 

A. 5. Highest average price received for three, $50. each. 



W. L. DAVIS, Berlin, Conn. 
OWNER willow brook farm and breeder of single comb 

BUFF. BLACK AND WHITE ORPINGTONS 

.4. 1. Highest price paid for single specimen, $150. For 
two, $225. For ten, $650. 

.4. 2. Highest price paid for eggs for hatching, $20. per 
dozen; six dozen, Sill). 

.4. 3. Highest ] nice received for single specimen, $300. 

.1. 1. I was able to obtain the above named prices simply 
because they had merit and were the finest specimens that 




A SIMPLE WATER FOUNTAIN, BUT ONE THAT IS 
PRACTICAL AND CONVENIENT 

parties could buy. Hardly a week passes that I do not receive 
$50. for some individual fowl. I have sold a good many at 
$100. each and I have specimens upon my plant that $500 cash 
could not buy. 

A. 5. Highest price received for three, $350., sold on 
one order. 

A. 7. For ten sold at one time to one party, $350. I 
sold a breeding lot of birds a few days ago, including twelve 



females and one male in Single Comb Buff variety for $300. 
These were simply breeding birds, not intended for show pur- 
poses. 

I wish to call your attention to the fact that our farm is 
devoted to fancy or standard-bred poultry exclusively. As 
our young stock matures, the specimens that show serious de- 
fect are consigned to the market, but there are only a few such 
birds; therefore, what little we do in this line of business can 
hardly be called utility poultry breeding. We are sparing 
neither money nor labor to perfect our strains and each year 
the number of defective specimens grow less. 

A. 8. In reply to the latter part of your blank I would 
state that we have received some very high prices throughout 
the country. I have sold no doubt over 100 birds in the last 
two years at $50. each. This morning's mail brings me an order 
for one at $50. to go to Tennessee and also three to go to Mexico 
for $100. I was offered $600. for my first prize Buff cock at 
New York, 1903, but I could not afford to sell him, as I was 
just starting and had a reputation to make, and had to have the 
breeding of this bird to get better stock from. I could hardly 
afford to keep him, being offered that price, but I considered 
it better business judgment to keep him, even though we needed 
the money, than to be minus his breeding. 



U. R. FISHEL, Hope, Ind. 

SPECIALTY BREEDER OF WHITE PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

.4. 3. Highest price received for single specimen, 

A. 4. This bird won second prize at Indianapolis show, 
1906. I would not sell the first prize cock bird at this same show, 
although I was offered $1,000. for him by the man who paid 
$800. for the second prize bird. 

A. 5. Sold three cock birds to one party for $1,300. 

.4. 6. Sold seven White Plymouth Rocks for $1,750. 
This includes the $800. cock bird. 

A. 7. Highest average price received for ten, $250. each. 

.4. 8. For twenty-five, $160. each. 



A. C. HAWKINS, Lancaster, Mass. 

BREEDER OF ROYAL BLUE STRAIN PLYMOUTH ROCKS BARRED, WHITE 
AND BUFF; ALSO SILVER. WHITE AND BUFF WYANDOTTES 

Highest price paid for single specimen, $100. For 
For three, $300. 

Highest price paid for eggs for hatching, four sit- 
I. per sitting. 
Highest price received for single specimen, $300. 
This bird was the first prize cockerel at the New 
I refused $500. for him before the breeding season. 
After breeding him one season I sold Mm for the price named. 
(Note: — Mr. Hawkins has omitted to state the variety to which 
this bird belonged, but we are of the opinion it was a Barred 
Plymouth Rock.— Ed.) 

A. 5. Highest average price received for three, $200. each. 
A. 6. For five, $200. each. 

A. 8. For any twenty-five fowls of exhibition quality, 
$100. each. These were to different parties. Have sold twenty- 
five to one party at an average of $50. each. 



J. M. WILLIAMS & CO., North Adams, Mich. 

BREEDERS AND EXHIBITORS OF ALL VARIETIES OF SINGLE AND 
ROSE COMB ORPINCTONS 



A. 1. 


two, $200. 


A. 2. 


tings at $10 


.4. 3. 


A. 4. 


York Show. 



A. 1. Highest price paid for single specimen, $100. For 
two, $125. We bought one lot of fifteen birds for which we 
paid $500. 



14 



VALUE OF STANDARD BREDS 



A. 2. Highest price paid for eggs for hatching, $10. per 
thirteen. 

A. 3. Highest price received for single specimen, $100. 

A. 4. Our customer came here and picked the bird out to 
strengthen his flock. Their birds were off a little in some 
show points. We refused $300. for the first cock bird at the 
World's Fair, St. Lous, Mo.; also another offer of $100. for this 
same bird to be used during one week at Madison Square Garden 
Show. 

A. 5. Highest average price received for three, $86.66., 
i. e., $100., $85., and $75., respectively, for each of the three 
specimens. The $75. bird was sent to Professor Saunders of the 
Experiment Station, South Dakota. 

A. 6. Outside of those mentioned above, we average $50. 
each on one-half dozen or more birds each year. These are show 
birds for other fanciers. 

A. 7. We sell at least a dozen $25. cockerels each year 
besides those above mentioned. 

A. 8. We sold twenty-five birds last season that averaged 
us $30. each. We have received as high prices as this on the 
average during the last three years. 



HARMON BRADSHAW, Lebanon, Ind. 

SPECIALTY BREEDER OF SINCLE COMB WHITE LEGHORNS 

A. 1. Highest price paid for single specimen, 815. for a 
pullet. 

A. 2. Highest price paid for eggs for hatching, $5. per 
thirteen. 

A. 3. Highest price received for single specimen, $15. 
Have been offered $50. 

A. 4. Because I had won several first prizes in hot com- 
petition. Have decided that I have been selling my birds too 
cheap. 

A. 5. $10. for trio. 

A. 6. $30. per pen. 



L. C. PISER, Shushan, N. Y. . 

SPECIALTY BREEDER OF BUFF WYANDOTTES 

A. 1. Highest price paid for single specimen, $75. For 
two, $125. For three, $150. 

A. 2. Highest price paid foi eggs for hatching, $50. for 
one hundred eggs. 

A. 3. Highest price received for single specimen, $75. 

A. 4. Owing to their high merit I obtained $75. for one 
specimen, because of his show record. Bird won first at Boston 
and New York. 

A. 5. $200. for three birds. 

A. 6. $275. for five birds. 

A. 7. $40. per bird. 

A. 8. Could not give this exactly, but would say $30. 



KNAPP BROS., Fabius, N. Y. 

SINGLE COMB WHITE LEGHORN SPECIALISTS 

A. 1. Highest price paid for single specimen, $50. For 
two, $75. For three, $100. 

A. 2. Highest price paid for eggs for hatching, $5. per 
thirteen. 

A. 3. Highest price received for single specimen, $100. 

/I. 4. Was a winner of the first prize at New York Show. 
This bird was sold before leaving Madison Square Garden to a 
fancier who bought him on sight. 

A. 5. We have received $255. for three birds, making an 
average of $85. each. 

A. 6. We have received $375. for five birds or an average 
of $75. each. 

A. 7. We have received $625. for ten birds, making an 
average price of $62.50 each. 

A. 8. We have received $1,260. for twenty-five birds, 
making an average price of $50.40. 




15 



CHAPTER THREE 



STARTING IN THE BUSINESS 

REPRESENTATIVE FOREMOST AMERICAN BREEDERS 



UNITE IN A SYMPOSIUM OF THE SECRET OF SUCCESS— HOW TO START RIGHT- 
PRACTICAL ADVICE FOR FANCIER, FARMER AND MARKET POULTRYMAN 




ISHING to present to our readers the latest, best 
and most authoritative information on starting 
in the poultry business we decided that the best 
way would be to ask leading successful experi- 
enced poultrymen, how they would start if they 
were to begin again and possessed their present 
knowledge of the business. With this idea in 
i ni in 1 we prepared a set of fourteen questions on this subject 
and mailed them, with request for a prompt reply, to a number 
of old friends and patrons of the AV/iVjWe Poultry Journal. 

These poultrymen and women have learned the secrets of 
success and are experienced breeders and fanciers of note. They 
are in a position to tell the beginner how to start right and avoid 
the pitfalls of i&experiencc. Their advice should prove of great 
value to the novice whether he intrude to become a breeder of 
fancy poultry, a market poult ryruati, or, as many have wisely 
chosen, expects to devote himself tu a happy combination of 
both inti re i . Fancy and utility. The farmer and the farmer's 
flock i- M. ii overlooked, for him also good sound common sense 
advice is given. 

i in first reading, some of these answers may appear to con- 
flict, but closer study "ill show that these fifty-nine successful 
breeders are practically of one opinion as to the essentials. 
Where one apparently disagrees w it h the majority his answer will 

usually contain a qualifying clause which modifies it according 

to the case in points or there is given good reason for his par- 
ticular dissension from the verdict of the majority. 

I hi- only way to get full benefit of these questions and 
answers is to study them all carefully, apply them to your own 
particular case and circumstances according to your own best 
judgment, and then be guided by the advice of the majority who 
have given answers that fit your own situation. No beginner 

can go far wrong who will study this symposium carefully and 
then Toperly apply its teachings. 

I he majority of these breeders agree that it is best to start 
breeding stock where means will permit, and they give the 
reason- why; yet nearly all agree that egg- for hatching will 
give a good low cost start to one who does not possess sufficient 
means to Start with stock. There is an element of chance in 
eggs for hatching that cannot be overlooked, — it is really a 
gamble or lottery. You buy the breeders chances in that par- 
t icular lot of eggs, say a sitting of 1.5 eggs for $2., $3. or $5. You 
may hatch and raise hall a dozen birds worth a dollar each, you 
may get three worth from $5. to $100. each and you may lose the 
whole lot and get nothing. It is for you to decide whether or 
not you wish to take chances in this egg lottery; the breeders 
have given their views and you must decide. Even though the 
element of chance enters largely into this egg problem, experi- 
ence has shown that fortune more often than not favors the egg 
buyer. There are chances also to be taken in the purchase of 
stock. The change may affect the birds, they must become 
acclimated and losses may result. 

Every reliable breeder you patronize, whether you buy 



eggs or stock, will do his best to help you to start right, and 
if losses result, from no fault of your own, will do his best to 
meet you half way and help you to overcome your disappoint- 
ment and loss. 

Mongrels are spoken of in no uncertain terms in this sympo- 
sium. The day of the mongrel on successful poultry plants has 
gone forever; it no longer pays to keep scrubs. Pure-breds cost 
no more to raise and keep and they bring in much better returns 
in eggs and meat, besides being salable at good prices as breeding 
stock. The farmer who is abreast of the times has no use for 
mongrel stock, his horses, cattle, sheep and hogs must all be 
pure-breds, the best he can get, for the same reasons he should 
keep pure-bred poultry, not alone because they are more beauti- 
ful and make the farm more attractive, but because they grow 
thrive, produce and pay better. 

HOW TO STUDY THE SYMPOSIUM 

This symposium may be well termed "the voice of experi- 
ence." Men of mark in the poultry world have contributed 
their advice and judgment freely. The reader should first study 
the questions and then compare them with the answers which 
are numbered to correspond. Each question has been given a 
number and under each of the fifty-nine separate divisions of 
this chapter, devoted to the replies of a prominent breeder, the 
answers will be found bearing the same number as the question 
asked. We believe that this is the simplest and best way to 
handle the subject satisfactorily. The reader is earnestly urged 
to carefully read and study each question and answer by itself 
and then compare the opinions of the different breeders. Here- 
with is the list of questions: 

THE FOURTEEN QUESTIONS 

Suppose you possessed your present knowledge of the poultry 
business and were about to begin again, 

Q. 9. Would you buy eggs or fowls with which to start? 

Q. 10. What would be your reason? 

Q. 11. What course would you advise for the farmer who 
wishes to improve his flock of mongrels by the addition of pure- 
bred blood with the object of raising better poultry for market? 

Q. 12. What course for the farmer who wishes to raise 
and sell fancy poultry as well as poultry for market? 

Q. 13. What course for the beginner with ample funds 
who wishes to keep a limited number of fine fowls and breed 
exhibition specimens? 

Q. 14. What course for the beginner without much 
money to invest who wishes to go into the fancy poultry business? 

Q. 15. What course for the beginner with ample funds 
who wishes to establish a large business in fancy and market 
poultry? 

Q. 16. W T hat course for the beginner with moderate 
means who wishes to establish a large business in fancy and 



16 



STARTING IN THE BUSINESS 



market poultry? 

Q. 17. With your present knowledge and experience, if 
about to begin again, which breed or variety would you select 
if you were going into fancy poultry? 

Q. 18. What would be your reasons for this choice? 

Q. 19. Which variety would you select if you were going 
to embark in market poultry raising? 

Q. 20. Your reason for this selection? 

Q. 21. If you wished to combine both fancy and market 
poultry raising, what breed or varieties would you select? 

Q. 22. Your reasons for this choice? 



OLD, TRIED BREEDS PROVE SAFEST 

KEEP IN VIEW THE PRACTICAL WHILE 
BUILDING UP A TRADE IN PUREBREDS— 
CROSSES RECOMMENDED FOR STRICTLY 
MARKET PURPOSES— THE REASON WHY 

I. K. FELCH, Natick, Mass. 

VETERAN JUDGE AND BREEDER OF LIGHT BRAHMAS, WHITE 
WYANDOTTES. BARRED AND WHITE PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

A. 9. I would never buy any eggs if I could obtain first 
class fowls at a reasonable price. 

A. 10. First; chicks from eggs shipped any distance will 
never be as fine as those from the same hen's eggs set at home. 
Again, there is the liability of accident and of trouble with sit- 
ting hens, so that the investment may be a total loss if eggs are 
bought. 

Second; when eggs are laid and set at home we do not 
mind the accident of a poor hatch; we have eggs enough coming 
to repair the loss. 

Third; what does it amount to in the end; if you pay $100. 
for a pen of five fowls and raise from them one hundred chickens, 
it makes the flock cost but one dollar each for blood and you 
have the pen left. The fact that the flock was from such a pen 
would enable .you to sell them for a dollar more each, than you 
could a flock raised from eggs bought. 

A. 11. I cannot conscientiously advise a farmer to do 
such a thing. He had far better buy average specimens of 
Brahma hens with a White Leghorn cockerel and raise half- 
breeds for poultry and eggs than to cross up mongrels with pure- 
bred males. Such a cross will be the most profitable where eggs 
and poultry for market purposes are desired. The days of 
mongrels have long since passed. If he chooses to use these 
half-breeds let him mate a White Wyandotte male with the 
females, and the third year breed back the pullets of this mating 
to White Wyandotte cocks. Buy for the third year good White 
Wyandotte males and so secure from this mating a flock of 
fowls that are practically pure-bred White Wyandottes. 

A. 12. I should choose from among the American breeds 
the variety I liked best. My choice would be White Plymouth 
Rocks from this class and Light Brahmas from the Asiatics. 
These two breeds will lay the most satisfactory eggs for a family 
trade. Raise White Plymouth Rocks for early roasters and 
first class eggs. Brahmas are the best winter layers of all the 
breeds. Brahmas are good birds to "carry over" and in March 
the male birds not sold for breeding purposes can be readily sold 
as heavy roasters. There is no breed that pays to feed the 
males through winter like the Brahmas, for they are soft roasters, 
if kept in celibacy, from the time they are five months old until 
spring. We often get S3, each for these males as heavy roasters 
in March. The White Plymouth Rock males killed before they 
are five months old will pay for raising themselves and the 



pullets up to a laying age, practically giving us the pullets 
free of cost. 

A. 13. The day is past when one can count on selling 
every chicken raised for breeding or exhibition if one is to retain 
his reputation as a first class breeder. He must calculate on rais- 
ing at least 40 to 50 per cent of each one hundred chicks to be 
disposed of as market poultry. For such he should choose a breed 
that can be raised to perfection by the single mating system so 
that he will have the smallest percentage of culls. One breed 
is all that he should try to handle on a backyard lot or small 
farm. There is no doubt that all do the best with a variety 
they like best, but the breed the vast majority buy is the safest 
for the novice to start with, for thousands of breeders are telling 
in their advertisements of its merits. If one chooses an isolated 
breed he has to do an immense amount of advertising before 
he will make his variety popular, even if it has merit. The 
old tried breeds will prove the safest for him, Brahmas, White 
Wyandottes or White Leghorns as his taste dictates. 

A. 14. Such persons must keep in view the practical 
while building up a trade for the pure-breds. The beginner 
should choose a breed that he has made up his mind to tie to all 
his fife, for no man yet has ever increased his trade beyond the 
reflex influence last seasons' advertising has on the current year 
business. He had best buy a trio of good birds and spend his 
first season in breeding his stock rather than trying to buy a full 
complement. He will learn the requirements of the business in 
his first years' labor. He will find that the male birds will sell 
for market poultry for enough to raise his pullets, so that the 
pullets will cost only the time it takes to care for them. The 
first year will be the hard year for such a beginner, but the 
second year the flock will begin to care for him. Take but one 
breed the first year. Put an ad. in a poultry paper no larger 
than you can afford to carry as a yearly advertisement. 

A. 15. Such a beginner has no excuse if he does not suc- 
ceed, provided he secures the right kind of help and puts suffi- 
cient money into the business to make it pay. As we have said 
above, on a large plant at least 40 to 50 per cent of the product 
must be disposed of in the markets as poultry and eggs. He 
should choose three or four breeds so assorted as to insure the 
very largest uniform daily production of eggs the year round. 
My advice would be Light Brahmas, White Plymouth Rocks 
and White Leghorns, or Light Brahmas, Buff Plymouth Rocks 
and Buff Leghorns. If I lived near New York market I would 
choose Buff Orpingtons, Light Brahmas and White Minoreas. 
I would not keep more than these three varieties and would 
push them for all they were worth. 

A. 16. It matters not whether a man has little or much 
means, he is bound by the same rules and breeds. This breeder 
of moderate means must begin small and grow up from 'ear to 
year until he becomes a breeder with ample means. 

A. 17. My breeds today: Light Brahmas, Barrea and 
White Plymouth Rocks, and White Wyandottes. 

A. IS. I live in New England where yellow legs and yellow 
skin lias the call, and as half one raises must go to the butcher's 
block the above breeds pay the best and all are first class egg 
producers. In New England the lurid that i- both the best for 
poultry and for eggs pays better than the breed where the eggs 
are the prime consideration. 

.4. 19. Brahmas, and cross them with White Wyandottes. 

.4. 20. They would reach broiling age 4 lbs. to the pair 
in eight weeks. The females lay dark-shelled eggs and litis 
first cross will give about 200 eggs a year per hen. They will 
make larger roasters at from six to seven months old, besides 
they would be in grand shape during the whole si iso - growth. 

.4. 21. Brahmas as the best large breed. White or Buff 
Plymouth Rocks or White Wyandottes. 

.4. 22. 1 think them all prolific layers when bred to an 



17 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



oblong shape of body and close plumage. Excessive blocky 
shape is a robber of merit liotli as to normal growth and egg 
production. 



BEGIN WITH FOWLS 

NOT PULLETS AND COCKERELS BUT HENS 
AND COCKS— NO GUESS WORK THEN AS 
TO QUALITY OK FOUNDATION STOCK 

THOMAS F. RIGG, Iowa Falls, Iowa 

BREEDER OF HOUDANS AM) WHITE UYANDOTTES 

.1. i). Fowls, m>t pullets and cokerels, but hens and 
cocks. 

.1. 10. By so doing would secure breeding stock of known 
quality, as they would be fully developed in size, shape and color 

markings. There would lie no guess wotk about the quality of 

the foundal ion stock, 

.1. 11. Buy a pen of standard-bred fowls. Raise every 
chick possible from this pen. At the close of the breeding 
season market the mongrels. If not this, buy a number of 
standard-bred males of the American class, one breed or variety. 
Turn these in with the Hock of common stock. Breed to males 
of the same breed or variety each season. Use incubators and 
brooders, thus getting out early chicks. These early pullets 
will produce an abundance of eggs during early fall and winter. 

I he ' arly Cockerels can be profitably marketed when price for 

young stock is comparatively high. 

.1. 12. I'ut up e fortable.but not expensive buildings. 

Resolve to handle but one' breed or variety. White Plymouth 

Rock or Orpington, and stand pat on that resolution. Operate 
incubatoi and brooders. Early hatched birds will be demanded 

reeders and exhibitors lor the early shows and for the 
winter shows, and such exhibition stock brings the very highest 

pin. I Le early hatched pullets reserved will supply an abund- 
ance ni eggs which will command the highest market price. 

Advertise the breeding stock iti the poultry press every month 
in the year and every year. Exhibit stock annually. 

.1. 13. Make the start will e or two pens of fowls, not 

cockerels and pullets. Secure the very best stock obtainable 

regardless o) price. Make the matings each year carefully and 
for quality, nut quantity, lull early each season. This is 

very important, Keep only the specimens of extra choice 
quality; net all others off the place :i> soon as possible. Ex 
hibit in a number "i the leading shows each season. Advertise 
liberallj in the poultry press. 

.1. II. Same as the answer to No, 13 except that he must 
cut his cloth to the garment; must proceed more slowly, denying 
himself somewhat of the conveniences which the man of ample 

means can and should have, but which are not absolutely neces- 
sary to success but he must not out the quality of the founda- 
tion stock. Better start with a pen or trio of extra choice stock 

than with several pens uf fair to good stock. Here is where 
most beginners fall dow n. 

.1. 15. Same as I he answer to No. 13 in regard to laying 
the foundation of the business. Should locate near a city and 
own the land, several acres, enough land that grain in particular 
at least may be raised. Select one variety of Wyandottes, 
Plymouth Rocks, Orpingtons or S. ('. White Leghorns. Use 
incubators and brooders. Establish a personal trade for market 
poultry and eggs. Deliver to customers daily in neat packages, 
each package bearing name of producer and his guaranty of 
quality. Charge a little more than the market price and make 
the goods worth it. This alone will greatly aid in the selling 
"I the produce. Advertise and exhibit the stock. 



.4. 16. Same as the answer to No. 1.5, bringing the busi- 
ness to the full capacity of the farm and the owner's resources 
more slowly. 

A. 17. White Plymouth Rocks and S. C. White Leghorns. 

A. 18. They represent the best in market poultry and 
egg production. They possess all the points required by the 
fancier and market poult ryman; beauty and utility. 

A. 19. White Plymouth Rocks. 

A. 20. Consider them the best market fowls. They fully 
meet the demands of the American market and can be brought 
to marketable size and condition more quickly than any other 
breed or variety. 

A. 21. White Plymouth Rocks. 

A. 22. Answered in No. 18 and 19. Also that they are 
one of the most popular fowls with the breeders and exhibitors. 



BUY PLENTY OF EGGS 

MOST BEGINNERS BUY TOO FEW— YOU WANT 
A FAIR NUMBER OF CHICKS TO START WITH 

H. J. BLANCHARD, Groton, N. Y. 

SPECIALTY BREEDER OF SINGLE-COMB WHITE LEGHORNS 

.4. 9. Eggs — from a long established, well known, suc- 
cessful and reliable breeder who has made a specialty of the 
I need I want. 

.1. It). I should buy a goodly number of eggs; most be- 
ginners make the mistake of buying too few, so as to have a 
fair number of chicks to start with. I would raise them care- 
fully, keeping them growing right along without setbacks if 
possible, giving free range when old enough, watching them 
carefully in every stage of growth. If they pleased me at ma- 
turity I would then select from the lot the most promising birds 
for breeders. In this way I would be more able to detect any 
weakness or undesirable qualities inherent in the strain, and 
would also run a chance of having some as good birds as the 
old breeder of whom I purchased the eggs. Furthermore, my 
chickens would not be of so many different ages and sizes as 
t hey would be if I had bought a few breeding birds and produced 
the eggs from which to hatch my chickens. 

A . 11. Buy some low-priced but good-sized and vigorous 
pure-bred males and cross on his mongrels. However, he might 
better sell his mongrels and buy pure-bred stock for breeders, 
as it costs no more to maintain them and much finer and more 
uniform poultry would be the result. 

.4. 12. Buy a fine breeding pen from a well known, re- 
liable and successful breeder for foundation stock. Or, if he 
prefers, it would perhaps be as weH to fill an incubator with 
first-class eggs instead of the fine breeding pen, whichever ap- 
peals to him most favorably. 

.4. 13. Buy the very finest breeding pen obtainable from 
a well known, reliable and successful specialty breeder of exhibi- 
tion birds, for his foundation stock. Would recommend line- 
breeding in his case. 

.4 . 14. Buy eggs from exhibition matings of a well known, 
reliable and successful specialty breeder, hatch and raise his 
breeding stock. 

A. 15. Buy enough good breeding stock to supply eggs 
for running one or two 240-egg incubators during the hatching 
season. Also buy enough eggs from fine exhibition matings to 
fill one or more incubators, from a specialist of reputation and 
experience. 

.4. 16. Buy 1,000 or 2,000 eggs for hatching from good 
general purpose matings, of an experienced, reliable and success- 
ful specialty breeder, hatch them in incubators and raise with 



IN 



STARTING IN THE BUSINESS 



brooders. Select a pen of your finest pullets for breeding ex- 
hibition stock and buy from the same breeder a fine cock to mate 
with them. Select the next best pullets for your utility matings 
and if you have the means to spare buy vigorous cocks from the 
same breeder, if possible, to mate with them. Or, if your cash 
is running low, use some of your strongest and best cockerels 
to mate with the pullets. 

A. 17. Single Comb White Leghorns. 

A. 18. I consider them the handsomest and most grace- 
ful fowl. There is a great and growing demand for them, their 
popularity arising largely from their known ability as layers 
and the handsome, large white egg bringing a good premium 
above regular prices in the best markets. They are hardy, 
vigorous and do well both confined and on free range. They 




AN ARTISTIC LOCATION FOR DUCKS 

are a good table fowl when well fattened, the flesh being fine 
grained, sweet and juicy.' They are in great demand for exhibi- 
tion purposes at good prices, being one of the largest and most 
popular classes in most shows. 

A. 21. Single-Comb White Leghorns only. 

A. 22. For reasons already stated in No. 18. Also the 
surplus cockerels at 12 to 16 ounces each alive make delicious 
squab broilers and sell at high prices. They are great foragers 
and particularly adapted to free range. 



NEVER GET DISCOURAGED 

THE POULTRY BUSINESS WILL PAY A GOOD 
PROFIT- MUCH DEPENDS ON DETAIL WORK 

KNAPP BROS., Fabius, N. Y. 

SINGLE-COMB WHITE LEGHORNS SPECIALISTS 

A. 9. We would buy poultry for main dependence from 
the best breeders of the variety we wished to start with. 

.1. 10. For the reason that one lias a much better oppor- 
tunity to select and know what his foundation stock is; a few 
sittings from must reliable breeders would be a safe proposition. 

.1. 11. Would advise him to purchase male birds from 
one of the general purpose varieties to breed with his mongrel 
females, and one or more pure bred females of same variety, 
and so work into pure bred stock of the variety he likes best. 
White Wyandottes or White Plymouth Rocks are sure to be 
rifjht. 



A. 12. Would advise purchasing a grand pen of breeding 
birds of the desired variety as foundation stock, and add to this 
stock by purchase and stock raised until a good business is 
developed. 

A. 13. First, select the variety that has the most ready 
sale; secure breeding stock that has been bred right so that a 
large per cent of the progeny will conform to standard require- 
ments. Study the breed and best methods of breeding. Learn 
to love the business, let others know in any way you can that 
you have the best, the most popular variety, and you are sure 
to succeed. Attend the leading shows, compare results, never 
get discouraged. Very much depends on the little detail work. 

A. 14. Select the S. C. White Leghorns, the greatest egg 
producing breed; they will pay their way in eggs at the common 
market price. More money in market eggs than market poult ry. 
This variety helps the profit side, while you are working up the 
fancy business. Pay a well known reliable breeder a good price, 
all he asks, for your foundation stock, and you are well started 
in the right direction. Attend the poultry shows; it will well 
pay. Study the breeding problem thoroughly. 

.4. 15. Engage a competent man of experience to take 
charge of and build up the plant, a man who has had sufficient 
training, possesses good sound judgment and is a hustler. See 
that buildings are ready in the fall. Select the best one or two 
varieties. Secure the best to be had in yearling hens and early 
cockerels to mate with them in sufficient numbers to well stock 
your buildings, and your man is sure to make a success from the 
first start off. 

A, 16. First, acquaint yourself with your business thor- 
oughly by attending some Agricultural College having a poultry 
department with a thoroughly good man at the head of it. 
Prof. Jas. E. Rice, of Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y., is just 
such a man. Take the time to learn the business. Prepare 
yourself further by spending a few months with some good 
poultryman on the farm, taking up the details and practical work 
along the lines you wish to follow. Your buildings should be 
ready to receive your breeding stock in the fall. Now, select 
the best of breeding stock and have everything in readiness for 
early spring. 

A. 17. S. C. White Leghorns. 

.4. 18. Because we believe this variety is the best egg 
producing variety on earth; it matures early: the large sized, 
pure white eggs are sure to command highest market price: 
costs less for feed than the larger varieties; etc. We believe 
there is the greatest demand for breeding and laying stock and 
show birds of this variety at good prices. The country is dotted 
over with money-making poultry plants stocked with Single- 
Comb White Leghorns exclusively. The great popularity of this 
breed for the past fifty years is sufficient proof for the beginner 
that this variety is the one to select without a shadow of a doubt. 
The old breeders, exhibitors and beginners are the buyers. For 
proof that the poultry business is not overdone, notice the fact 
that all poultry products firing higher prices with each succeed- 
ing year or substantially so. Twenty years ago we sold surplus 
stock at six cents per pound; this fall same quality of stock 
brought l."> and 16 cents per pound live weight at wholesale. 
We believe that the poultry plain in a large or small way proper- 
ly managed to combine fancy and the market egg business will 
pay a much greater profit . pro\ e a source of greater enjoyment 
and satisfaction than if run for market poultry. \- proof we 
cite one or two cases in our history along this line and we could 
cite hundreds of similar examples. 

Our order books show that a customer sent us an order for 
two breeding pens S. C. W. Leghorns, lour pullets and a cock- 
erel in each pen. The amount he sent us at thai time, sixteen 
years ago. for these two pens or ten birds, was $108.00. This 
party is still breeding s. C. White Leghorns and has bought 

many hundreds of dollars worth more slock for new blood in 



19 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



breeding and exhibition birds and heavy layers. An order 
recently received, from this same party without waiting to write 
and ask a question, was for five of our best breeding cockerels, 
N. Y. draft $200. enclosed to pay for them, and in same letter 
$100. was enclosed for ten choice pullets. One other case we 
cite is that of an order just received, Nov. 13th., from one of 
our old standby customers in Australia, enclosing sight draft on 
New York of £15. sterling for three pullets, practically $25. each. 



START WITH STANDARD-BREDS 

BUY FOWLS RATHER THAN EGGS— DO 
NOT CROSS DIFFERENT STRAINS- 
MISTAKES YOU MAKE THE FIRST 
YEAR HELP YOU TO SUCCEED 

A. C. HAWKINS, Lancaster, Mass. 

BREEDER OF BARRED. WHITE AND BUFF PLYMOUTH ROCKS: 
WHITE AND BUFF WYANDOTTES 

A . 9. Fowls. 

A. 10. I would buy fowls rather than eggs for the reason 
that eggs often give unsatisfactory results. Sometimes they 
prove infertile, often they are injured in transit, and often the 
incubator or sitting hen does poor work. If you buy fowls the 
eggs will be in better hatching condition, and if one lot does not 
give good results others can be incubated. 

A. 11. I would advise a farmer to purchase males of 
pure-bred stock to breed on his common farm fowls, and to buy 
a pen of utility stock of some pure breed and breed up from 
them, changing males each season. Select the breeds that lay 
eggs of the proper color and that make the best fowls for the 
local markets. 

A. 12. Select one of the varieties of Plymouth Rocks or 
Wyandottes, and purchase a good pen of a reliable breeder. 
Breed up a flock from them. Cull the flocks closely and breed 
from the best specimens each season. You will soon have a 
stock of fancy breeding birds as well as market fowls. 

A. 13. Purchase the very best exhibition specimens of a 
reliable breeder, and have them properly mated by the party 
who breeds them. Do not cross different strains if the one you 
have breeds to please you, but if they do not, drop the strain 
you have and take up a new one. 

A. 14. Purchase a trio of breeding birds at $25. to $50., 
the best you can afford. You should raise 75 to 100 chicks 
from a trio the first season and from such a flock you should 
select some choice pens for the next seasons' breeding. 

A. 15. Purchase 10 breeding pens, 100 females and 10 
males of first class breeding stock, costing $5. to $10. each. You 
should stock a large farm from the progeny of these breeding 
pens the first season, and have a good number of choice breeders 
and show birds for sale. 

A. 16. Purchase a breeding pen of 10 females and one 
male and raise 500 chicks the first year from them. Select the 
best for breeding, and the second year you should stock the farm 
with good birds from these matings. The mistakes you make the 
first year will help you to succeed. 

A. 17. Barred Plymouth Hocks and White Wyandottes. 

A. 18. I select these breeds as they are the most popular 
and sell for the highest prices. They are practical table fowls 
and those that do not sell for breeding or exhibition will sell at a 
profit for table use. 

A. 19. White Plymouth Rocks. 

A. 20. I select the White Plymouth Rocks because they 
lay a uniform dark-colored egg, are quick growers and have no 
black pin feathers. 



A. 21. Barred Plymouth Rocks, White Plymouth Rocks, 
White Wyandottes, Columbian Wyandottes. 

A. 22. Because they are in good demand for breeding 
and show purposes, and are all practical utility fowls. 



GOOD BUSINESS FOR FARMER 

BEGIN RIGHT— BUY THE BEST— KEEP 
ONLY STANDARDBREDS - BETTER 
RETURNS FOR MONEY INVESTED 

C. H. WELLES, Stratford, Conn. 

SPECIALTY BREEDER OF BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

A. 9. I would buy both fowls and eggs provided the 
eggs were from fowls mated as I want them. 

A. 10. I should buy the best fowls of whatever breed 
took my fancy. These would be good for two or three years 
breeding. Every observing poultryman learns something each 
year and the practical experience gained by breeding one's own 
birds leads me to say, buy the fowls first. If you think some 
other breeder has blood that you want and you can't buy it, 
then do the next best thing — buy the eggs. 

A. 11. I would advise every farmer to dispose of his 
mongrels and procure the best all purpose fowl suited to his 
trade. It costs no more to raise and keep them, and they will 
command a better price and give better satisfaction both to 
himself and his customers. Any reliable breeder who has spent 
time and money in breeding his flock to a high standard is in a 
position to furnish this stock, as there are lots of birds raised 
that are not quite good enough to show that are well suited for 
this purpose. 

A. 12. This is a good business for every farmer but I 
would advise beginning in the right way — buy the best. No 
good farmer wants a poor horse or cow and it is just as essential 
to have good fowls. They will give better results for the amount 
of money invested when given the same good attention. The 
first expense may run high but you will be surprised how soon 
your next neighbor will get the fever and pay you for it. 

A. 13. Again I say, buy the best and if he don't succeed, 
buy some more. This beginner has probably got an automobile 
and when they need the most attention he won't be there but 
the cats will. 

A. 14. Start in a small way but buy the best and get 
your experience as you get interested. Buy the best, life is too 
short to begin any other way. Get on as near the top as possible 
and climb up. 

A. 15. I am afraid this fellow is going to be hard to 
teach. He has probably read all the poultry literature on the 
market and is going to do as he likes, right or wrong. His ex- 
perience will cost him something but we can't help it. 

A. 16. Go slow. The water may run warm when he 
goes in and he will be liable to get beyond his depth. 

A. 17. Barred or White Plymouth Rocks. 

A. 18. I have three reasons. 

First, they are the most popular birds in America and are 
found in the yards of more poultrymen than any other one breed 
or variety. 

Second, they are the best general purpose fowl, being 
excellent layers and fine market birds, maturing early and of 
good size. 

Third, they are par excellence as show birds and there is 
no class that attracts more attention or meets stronger competi- 
tion in the show room. The supply of choice specimens has 
never equalled the demand. 

A. 19. Barred or White Plymouth Rocks 



20 



STARTING IN THE BUSINESS 



A. 20. The same as given in No. 18, only pay more at- 
tention to large size and less to fine feathers. 



KEEP PEDIGREE RECORDS 

VALUE CANNOT BE OVER-ESTIMATED— IT 
IS THE ONLY SURE WAY TO BREED RIGHT 

W. W. BYWATERS, Camden Point, Mo. 

SPECIALTY BREEDER OF BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

A. 9. Would buy a couple of trios or pens, the best 
obtainable and then several hundred eggs. 

A. 10. This would be a very good way to start to line 
breed and it is hardly ever best to depend on one particular 
mating. In this case I could thoroughly test the breeding 
merits of the pens and if they bred true I could select males 
bred from them for next season. If the eggs were from the 
same breeder and I had carefully kept pedigree record of pens 
and eggs I could mate no doubt as well as if they were all bred 
and raised at home. The value of a carefully kept pedigree 
record cannot be over-estimated as it is the only sure way to 
breed. 

A. 11. Get good males that are strong in the points you 
wish to establish, and use them two years; the second year breed 
them back to their own pullets. Males can be bought from some 
reliable fancier from $2. to $5. each or they may come cheaper 
by buying a few sittings of eggs and raising them at home. 
Don't let a dollar or two prevent your getting the best for the 
purpose. 

A. 12. Stock up with pure-breds as soon as possible and 
handle one variety. The cheapest method to make the change 
would be to buy several hundred eggs. Use the mongrels to 
hatch and rear the chicks and dispose of the mongrels as soon 
as the youngsters are old enough to wean. 

A. 13. Buy the very best breeders obtainable and trust 
to the fancier you buy from to mate them for best results. 

A. 14. Buy a first class trio and then a limited number 
of eggs, the best obtainable. 

A. 17. ' Barred Plymouth Rocks. 

A. 18. They are more extensively bred than any other 
variety, thus insuring a better market for your product. 

A. 19. Barred Plymouth Rocks. 

A. 20. They combine about all the qualities desirable for 
this purpose and the surplus males can be sold to better advan- 
tage for breeding purposes. 

A. 21. Barred Rocks. 

A. 22. Because I have tested them thoroughly and know 
them to be desirable for both fancy and market. 



ALL DEPENDS ON BREEDING STOCK 



A. 11. Light Brahmas make the best poultry. Rhode 
Island Reds for an all purpose fowl fill the bill. Large R. I. 
Red males crossed on such hens would give good results, and 
better still if the males are from a great laying strain. 

A. 12. First, decide on the breed and decide wisely, as 
the demand for some breeds of fowls is very limited. The all 
around fowl has the greater demand. I have tried most all 
breeds and find the breeds of the American class the most 
profitable. 

A. 13. Buy eight or ten yearling hens and a cockerel, 
the best to be had, of some reliable breeder whose stock is vigor- 
ous and has stood the test in the strongest shows. Most every- 
thing depends on the breeding stock, so the old saying that the 
best is none too good certainly holds true in this case. I get 
the best results when using a cockerel on hens; the chicks come 
stronger; the reason is plain, the hens not laying much during 
the winter, not being forced, come along naturally. I never 
allow my breeders to be forced during the winter, only to come 
along naturally. The chicks from such stock are much the 
stronger. 

A. 14. He should go slow and grow up in the business. 
He must advertise or no one will know where he lives. Don't 
buy a trio and expect results, as two females with one male may 
prove a failure. Have six birds at least with a young male, or 
perhaps four females with a cock might do, but with a cockerel 
four would be too few. The best way for such a beginner would 
be to find work for himself on some successful poultry plant or 
plants. He would gain immeasurably and surely save a lot of 
time and money. 

A. 16. If he cannot get a place on a successful plant and 
has a certain amount of common sense, let him tackle it without. 
Don't jump into it all at once, as it takes some capital after 
everything is bought to carry on the business. If one uses 
little theory and much common sense he will be more apt to 
succeed. 

A. 17. Rhode Island Reds. 

A. 18. They have proved to me to be the most profitable 
as an all around fowl for both meat and eggs. They mature 
early and are the best of winter layers. Cocks weigh about 
9 lbs. and hens 7 lbs. You can hatch a month later than you 
can with any of the other so-called general purpose fowl, and get 
them to laying at the same time in the fall. 

A. 19. If I were to hatch during the fall I would use 
Light Brahmas; during the late winter and early spring, Rhode 
Island Reds. 

A. 20. The Brahma is so slow to mature that you can 
hold them longer than any other breed, as they remain soft. 
The longer into the spring you can hold a fall chicken the more 
you get per pound for it as a roaster. 

.4. 21. Rhode Island Reds. 

A. 22. I honestly believe that one breed is all any man 
can properly attend to on the same plant. Rhode Island Reds 
have given me the best results as layers and for fancy purposes. 



THE BEST ARE NONE TOO GOOD- 
GO SLOW AND GROW UP IN THE 
BUSINESS — LITTLE THEORY AND 
MUCH COMMON SENSE NECESSARY 

W. S. HARRIS, Mansfield, Mass. 

BREEDER OF RHODE ISLAND REDS EXCLUSIVELY 

/I. 9. I should buy the fowls if I wanted to breed many, 
but eggs if few. 

-4. 10. If one is to breed a large number, it would be 
cheaper to buy enough breeding stock to give a sufficient number 
of eggs, and he would know better what to expect from the eggs. 



CHEAP START WITH EGGS 

PURE BRED FLOCK IN SHORT TIME AT SMALL COST 
GARDNER & DUNNING. Auburn. N. V. 

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCK SPECIALISTS 

.1. 9. Both. 

.1. 10. If one buys of a reliable breeder ho can got started 
for less money by buying eggs. It would doubt loss be necessary 
to buy a tow birds to enable one to properly mate up the pens 
for the lirst seasons' brooding. 

.4. 11. Buy pure-bred male or males, or hotter still buy 



2] 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



SO or 100 eggs from pure-breds; mate t lie best cockerel raised 
with a pen of the best females and raise all his chicks from this 
pen. In tlii> way he can have a pure-bred flock in two years 
at small cost. 

.1. 12. Buy 100 or more eggs from a reliable breeder. 
II not enough suitable nudes are raised to mate with the females, 
buy from some breeder. 

.1. 13. Buy best pair or tiio of fowls obtainable and use 
I hem for foundation stock. Would prefer to start witli one 
pair and that pair the best money would buy. 

.1 . 14. Buy eggs. 

.1. 15 and 16. Buy both stock and eggs. 

.1. 17. Barred Plymouth Rocks. 

.1. IS. Better demand at better prices than for any other 
variety, SO far as I know. 

.1. 10. Barred Plymouth Hocks. 

.1. 20. Best utility fowl we have. Good layers, quick 
grown, hardy and marketable at any age. 

.1. 21. Barred Plymouth Rocks. 

.1. 22. Choice exhibition specimens sell readily at S50, 
to $100 each. U market fowls they have no superior. 



FARMER, SELL YOUR MONGRELS 

PURE-BREDS MAKE DOLLARS WHERE 
SCRUBS MAKE CENTS— GET THE BEST 
PURE STOCK YOU CAN BUY AND 
MAKE MONEY FROM THE START 

U. R. FISHEL, Hope, Indiana 

11 n BREEDER OF WHITE PLYMOUTH rocks 

.(, 0. 1 would buy fowls by all means. 

.1. 10. In buying fowls you save one year's time, also m 

buying fowls they pay their way right from the start. A lew 

dollar- more than that required for I he purchase of eggs will 

buy a good mating of breeders. Ii you buy your foundation 
-tuck of a good reliable breeder there i- no reason why your 
investment should not prove a profitable one. 

A. 11. If I was a farmer and wanted to make more money 

out of my poultry 1 WOUld sell every mongrel 1 had and buy a 

small Hoik of one variety of pure-bred fowls. With this Bock 

a- the Foundation 1 would in a lew seasons have a Mock of fowls 
that would lie making dollars where the mongrels make me 

cents. 

.1. 12. The only wise course lor the fanner to take in 
rearing poultry for fancy and market is to stock his farm with 
one breed of fowls that are in great demand, and select a variety 
that will breed true to color. Reserve the best for the fancy 
trade and sell the ordinary ones to the markets, realizing from 
one to three cents more per pound lor them. 

.1. L3. The way for the beginner to follow who wants to 
breed only a lew fowls and those good ones should lie to liny a 
-mall pen of tin' very best quality that he can afford to buy. 
Secure the birds of a breeder that you know breeds his winners. 
You then know that you ate getting stock that will produce 
your winners. Always tie to a specialty breeder. You can then 
bank on it that you are getting pure blood and stock that will 
give you excellent results. 

.1. 11. To the man that has but little capital 1 would 
-ay buy a small pen or tiio of as good quality birds as your 
means will permit. Breed them and sell their progeny until 
you have enough money to get better birds. If you take the 
proper variety and buy of the light party you will make money 
from the start. 

A. 1.5. The proper way for one who has plenty of capital 



to enter the poultry business is to start slow, learn the business 
and add to the plant as you know the details. Don't build a 
thousand dollar poultry house and buy ten dollars' worth of 
chickens, expecting the business to pay. It takes the chickens 
to make the business profitable. 

.4. 16. A man with moderate means will generally start 
right for he cannot start except on a small scale. Buy a few 
good birds, do not spend too much money for fine buildings, and 
you will be all right. 

A. 17. I would by all means breed White Plymouth 
Rocks. 

A. 18. They command the best of juices both for fancy 
and market poultry. They are easy to breed by breeding true 
to color; are the very best of egg producers; the best table fowl 
we have, in fact, the White Plymouth Rocks are the most 
beautiful and profitable fowl bred today. 

A. 19. White Plymouth Rocks. 

A. 20. They are by all odds the best money makers there 
are; splendid layers, fine table fowls, in fact, they combine 
every good quality and have no poor ones. 

.1. 21. White Plymouth Rocks. 

.4. 22. As mentioned above, they sell for more money 
and breed truer than any other variety. 



QUALITY BEFORE QUANTITY 

BETTER TWENTY-FIVE GOOD BIRDS THAN ONE 
HUNDRED INFERIOR ONES— SELECT A POPU- 
LAR STANDARD VARIETY THAT SUITS YOU 

WILBER BROS., Petros, Tenn. 

SPECIALTY BREEDERS OF SIXCLE COMB WHITE LEGHORNS 

.1. 0. Would buy stock, considering well quality ami 
not pi ice. 

-I. U). On buying stock well mated for extra results, 
paving a reasonable price and considering quality before quan- 
tity (from an honest breeder who deals with his patrons as he 
would desire to he dealt with), one is started for the front, hav- 
ing gained a foundation that will keep him right with the breed- 
ing and long experience behind him. However, if the beginner 
is not financially able to purchase a foundation flock of good 
birds, would advise him to well consider the above and order 
eggs of the best possible stock. 

.4. 11. Would advise the farmer to cull down very close, 
considering his best laying and table quality specimens, selling 
off his scrubbiest birds and be sure he has selected his best; 
rather 2.5 of his best birds than 100 little, big, all colors and 
shapes. Afterwards buy from some good reliable breeder of 
his choice of variety, purpose considered, a good cockerel, 
strong and vigorous, to be mated with hens, a good yearling 
cock to be mated with pullets, not mating more than 10 or 12 
females to a male. 

.4. 12. The farmer wishing to raise fancy stock as well as 
poultry for market should consider well his market and the 
color of the birds, color of skin, color of eggs, etc., his market 
requirements, such as will meet with ready sale at top piices. 
.Select the most popular standard breed, suitable to fill these 
requirements, make his foundation stock of extra quality, 
selecting and separating his better specimens for fancy and sell- 
ing the lower quality birds to the maiket. 

.4. 13. The beginner with ample funds wishing to keep 
a limited number of fine fowls will not find everything in this 
line smooth sailing. Before engaging and entering into the busi- 
ness he should study well the leading poultry journals, adding 
to his library a copy of the American Standard of Perfection 



22 



STARTING IN THE BUSINESS 



visit some good shows, then select the variety that best suits 
his taste and that he has a love and fancy for, not overlooking 
one of the popular varieties. Make a very close study of the 
subject, have your houses and yards properly built, buy for 
foundation stock a good trio or pen mated to produce high class 
exhibition birds. Get them of some reliable and noted breeder 
who has won for years in the better class of shows and you will 
have the correct start, after which your future success depends 
upon your own efforts. 

A. 14. Make a close study of the chosen variety. Go to 
some good shows if possible. Get in communication with some 
good breeder, telling him your circumstances and wishes, and 
order a sitting or two of eggs from the breeder's best matings. 
Do not buy cheap sittings. 

A. 1.5. We would well consider location, market, houses 
of modern types, but convenient and comfortable to fowls. 
Having attended some good shows and studying the Standard 
and poultry journals he would be ready for the foundation stock. 
Would consider well the quality and the variety best suited, 
choosing one of the popular ones. Reserve the best birds for 



SELECT BREED TO SUIT LOCALITY 

LEARN MARKET REQUIREMENTS AND 
BE GOVERNED BY THEM— CATER 
TO THE DEMAND OF THE PUBLIC 

W. L. DAVIS, Berlin, Conn. 

BREEDER OF SINGLE-COMB BUFF, BLACK AND WHITE ORPINGTONS 

A. 9. I certainly should advise buying grown stock with 
which to make a start. 

A. 10. The reason for buying full grown stock would be 
simply because I know what I want and with that in view I 
should proceed to secure just the kind of specimens that I wanted 
to carry out my ideas on breeding. There never can be any 
doubt when you buy stock, as the material is there for you to 
see and judge. In buying eggs there is always a doubt whether 
you get that which you pay for or not. If I could buy from a 
reliable dealer eggs from his best yards I would consider this a 




PEKIN DUCKS AT HOME 
A flock of Pekin Ducks at the Echo Poultry Farm, Great Valley, N. Y. 



breeding and fancy trade, selling the lower quality on the 
market. 

A. 16. Start as per our answer in previous question, 
building from the ground up, not being too hasty, but keeping 
in view his future, and the amount of money he has to invest. 
Do not overlook the quality of the foundation stock. 

A. 17. Single-Comb White Leghorns, the best to be had 
considering size, standard qualities and egg production. 

.4. 18. Because they are unexcelled as layers and are 
found on the world's greatest poultry plants where eggs arc 
wanted in abundance the year round, the eggs of good size, 
high flavor, with a white shell, that are in demand at a good 
price. 'I here has never been and never will be enough of these 
birds reared to fill the great demand for first quality breeding 
and exhibition stock. They arc beautiful, profitable and the 
greatest of all layers. 

A. 21. Single-Comb White Leghorns. 

.1. 22. Because they are unexcelled layers, non-sitters. 
make very plump, small roasters and broilers, their skin being 
creamy or yellow and the meat very sweet, tine and juicy. 



fair way to start into breeding the very best. If I could not be 
sure of this I would buy stock by all means. 

.4. 11. I should advise the farmer in addition to buying 
new blood to buy eggs for hatching from a good reliable breeder. 
If I liked the offspring and they did well with me I should so 
still further and buy some stock from this same breeder. 

.1. 12. Go to some good breeder and buy the best grade 
of birds that he thought he could sell. Pay the breeder a fair 
price and let this be the start. If the farmer lives in a locality 
where there is a call for high class poultry with good prices for 
same. I should advise paying a good piice for a pen of birds to 
start with. If the farmer was a novice at raisins poultry a 
cheaper pen would be better to start in with, and he could 
concct his mistakes as he went along, at the same time getting 
educated in the breeding business. 

A. 13. Buy the very best that he can procure. Pay the 
breeder for the best and he sure that attention and time are given 
to them in seeming same. 

.4. 14, Would advise him to buy several sittings of good 
eggs from a reliable breeder. You understand all through my 



23 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



remarks I am laying great stress upon buying stock of reliable 
breeders. We have lots of them in this country that I would 
just as soon send to for eggs and know that I would get 
what I ordered as I would to go and see them laid at the plant. 
There are, however, some unreliable breeders that cannot be 
dealt with in this way. Also, advertisements are misleading, and 
a look at their stock would convince an experienced breeder at 
once that they were not all that they should be 

A. 15. Hire a thoroughly competent man to attend to 
the business for the first year or so at any rate, paying him from 
$60. to $100. a month. Go with him to some good breeder and 
buy extra good stock, also make arrangements with that same 
breeder to secure a sufficient number of eggs for hatching. 

A. 16. 1 would advise him to buy eggs of the variety he 
liked best. Begin small and grow up with the business, learn- 
ing as he goes along. 

A. 17. Orpingtons. 

A. 18. They are bound to be one of the most populaJ 
varieties in America, and they have the good qualities back of 
them to make them so. You cannot keep a good man down 
nor can you keep this good variety of poultry down. They have 
real merit and anything in this country that has real merit 
back of it has got to be a success in time. They are among the 
best layers, as the Australian egg laying contest proves. They 
command the highest prices in the fancy trade of any breed 
that I know. They are handsome, attractive birds; they will 
forage for their feed better than any other variety I know of; 
easy keepers, making finest of mothers, and can be broken of 
sitting easily. They have white skin that is fast becoming 
popular in our great public markets. To lovers of the very 
best things to eat they appeal the strongest. 

A. 19. If I was to embark in market poultry raising I 
would take the variety that was best adapted for the locality 
into which I was going. If it was around New York I should 
take Orpingtons by all means, as they are in such demand. 
Boston is a great town for yellow skin and I should select some 
varieties like the Wyandottes or White Rocks for that locality, 
although I believe if Orpingtons were selected it would not be 
long before the market would find out their good qualities, and 
the up-to-date poultryman could get a better price than his 
neighbor who is breeding yellow skinned birds. 

A. 20. My reasons for these selections are purely business 
ones to make the most money where I can, by catering to the 
demand of the public. 

A. 21. I can only answer this question by stating that I 
am in both lines, and I breed nothing but Orpingtons. 

A. 22. My reason for this choice is that I have been very 
successful in the poultry business, and this is the reason of my 
holding to the Orpingtons exclusively. I formerly raised Games, 
Leghorns, Light Brahmas and Barred Plymouth Rocks. For 
the past five years my Orpington business has increased each 
year, therefore my choice of this breed is perfectly satisfactory 
to me. 



MORE ECONOMY TO BUY FOWLS 

COST OF ONE THOUSAND EGGS WILL 
PAY FOR STOCK THAT WILL PRO- 
DUCE THREE TIMES AS MANY 

W. R. CURTISS & CO., Ransomville, N. Y. 

SPECIALTY BREEDERS OF WHITE WYANDOTTES; SINGLE COMB 
LEGHORNS AND PEKIN DUCKS 

A. 9. Would buy fowls. 

.4. 10. It is more economical. The same money you 
would invest in one thousand eggs will buy a pen that would 



produce at least three times as many eggs of the same quality, 
and your eggs are fresh and will hatch better than eggs shipped 
from a distance. Eggs are a lottery; you do not know what 
you have till the season is over. 

A. 11. We do not believe in cross breeds. Get a pen of 
pure blood stock and get the mongrels off the place as soon as 
possible. It might pay to introduce males in a flock of mongrels, 
but a pen of good birds would not cost any more than pure-bred 
males for a big flock. 

A. 12. Buy a good pen of breeding stock; it is the best 
way to start. 

A. 13. We do not advise buying birds in a show room. 
Go to some good reliable breeder and pay him to mate a few 
pens that will produce just what you want. We believe a better 
start can be had this way than in any other; as in our way, it 
is up to the breeder to make good. He is responsible for what 
the stock breeds. 

A. 14. Go on a practical poultry plant, learn the busi- 
ness and get a position as manager. Would not advise starting 
in the poultry business without capital, unless it is to start 
small and work into it in connection with another business. 

A. 15. Secure a good reliable manager and be governed 
by his experience in building up the business. Experience is 
a great help and there is no chance of success without it. 

A. 16. Learn the business and be governed by circum- 
stances. No two men can make a success in just the same way. 
A man must be adapted to the business to succeed. 

A. 17. Should breed White Wyandottes. 

A. 18. They are the most popular variety and easiest to 
breed right, as to standard requirements, less culls and more 
specimens that can be sold at a good figure to show or breed. 

A. 19. Pekin Ducks, White Wyandottes for roasters, 
S. C. White Leghorns for eggs and broilers. 

A. 20. Pekin Ducks are the most hardy and best sellers, 
with not so much risk of losses by disease and death. White 
Wyandottes are hardy, mature quickly, fatten easily, and look 
well dressed. Good White Leghorns lay white eggs of good 
size, lay well and make } to 1} lbs. weight, well feathered, more 
quickly than any other breed. 

A. 21. White Wyandottes, S. C. White Leghorns, Mam- 
moth Pekin Ducks. 

A. 22. Pekins best for green ducks; Wyandottes best for 
crate-fattened roasters; Leghorns best for eggs, for market and 
squab broilers. 



BUY THE BEST BIRDS YOU CAN 

DON'T LET PRICE STAND IN THE 

• WAY— GOOD BIRDS WELL MATED 

SAVE TIME, AND TIME IS MONEY 

J. C. FISHEL & SON, Hope, Indiana. 

SPECIALTY BREEDERS OF WHITE WYANDOTTES 

A. 9. I would buy fowls, not eggs. 

A. 10. I believe I could get started in a much more 
satisfactory way and would get in the business much sooner. 
I do not fancy starting with eggs. I want to see the birds that 
lay the eggs and want to know how they are mated. 

A. 11. By introducing some good, thrifty, pure-bred 
male birds a flock of mongrels can be wonderfully improved. 

A. 12. Buy a good pen, say 8 or 9 females and one male, 
properly mated. A pen poorly mated will disgust a beginner 
the first year. Watch that point. It is in the mating. Of 
course you must have good blood back of the breeders. 

A. 13. Buy eggs of some responsible breeder who has 



24 



STARTING IN THE BUSINESS 



wod the prizes at the leading shows year after year, not from a 
breeder that has won say five or ten years ago and is still adver- 
tising the old winnings. 

A. 14. Buy the best birds you can buy; don't let price 
be in the way. Remember your time is worth as much as your 
money and in mating means one years' work gone. 

A. 15. Buy stock birds and good ones, also eggs. 

A. 16. Buy eggs from some responsible breeder. 

A. 17. White Wyandottes first and last. 

A. 18. They are the best general purpose fowl today. 
They are the best layers in the American class. They feather 
out nicely, and are always nice, plump birds at any age. 

A. 19. White Wyandottes. 

A. 20. Being a white bird they always demand the top 
price as market fowls. They mature as early as any American 
variety and earlier than some. 

A. "21. White Wyandottes. 

A. 22. I believe I could always sell the majority for 
fancy and in that way could realize a much better price. We 
have never yet been able to supply the demand. 



EGGS A GOOD START 

MAN WITH SMALL MEANS SHOULD START 
BY BUYING EGGS— BIRDS WORTH $100.00 
RAISED FROM $10.00 WORTH OF EGGS 

J. H. JACKSON, Hudson, Mass. 

SPECIALTY BREEDER OF WHITE WYANDOTTES 

A. 9. If I wanted high class show birds would get a 
few of the very best from a noted line breed strain. 

A. 10. I believe from my experience like begets like. 
A few good ones bred from fowls of many years good breeding 
are bound to give or produce several like themselves in a seasons' 
breeding. In buying eggs you have to run more chances but 
the expense is not so large, and it is the best way for one that 
cannot afford to buy high class stock. I have seen birds well 
worth $100. raised from $10. worth of eggs. 

A. 11. The best way would be to make a deal with some 
good breeder for one hundred or more eggs at best price, which 
is much lower by one hundred lots than sittings. One season 
with fair results would give him a good flock if the eggs were 
from a good strain. He would be able to select a pen of large, 
vigorous and good laying birds to breed from another season 
for the best results. 

A. 12. Would recommend same course as given in answer 
to No. 11. Buy eggs from a noted strain that has been bred 
for egg production as well as fancy. Have them selected and 
mated by an expert. Show some of the best at local shows; 
it is a chance to compare them with others. When able to 
breed some good ones begin to advertise in a small way; a 
steady advertisement is best. 

A. 13. Buy some high class birds, not chance birds, but 
fowls from a breeder of note that is able to breed high class 
standard specimens. Such a breeder will be able to furnish one 
with stock or eggs from time to time that will put the beginner 
in the front as a breeder and exhibitor of fancy fowls. If yards 
are limited chicks could be put out to raise with some farmers 
that can be depended upon to give them plenty of good food 
and free range. He could afford to pay more for this service 
than a farmer or his wife could get out of raising common farm 
fowls. 

.4. 14. Buy a few, one or more sittings, from a reliable 
breeder of note and select only the very best, if only a pair. 
A sitting should produce one or more real good birds. I saw a 



cockerel recently that colud not be bought for less than $50. 
that was raised from a sitting of eggs, and he was well worth the 
price to one that wants the best. 

A. 15. Buy a large number of eggs from several noted 
breeders and compare the results of the quality raised. A large 
number of chicks raised from each strain would soon prove 
which is the best and in a fair way. Engage an experienced 
poultryman to look after all details. 

A. 16. Buy as many eggs as your means would allow for 
raising chicks and other expenses. If satisfied that any one 
breeder would give him satisfaction or results wanted, place an 
order with that one. Lack of means does not allow as much 
experimental work as may be done by one with ample means. 

A. 17. White Wyandottes. 

A. 18. Because I believe them to be the best all purpose 
fowls. They make the best for market from a half-pound 
broiler to a medium-sized roaster, what the market demands 
at best prices. Always free from dark pin feathers, have rich, 
yellow skin and legs, deep, broad breast, very close comb; one 
of the best winter as well as summer layers of large brown eggs; 
a breed that has been well tried. 

A. 19. White Wyandottes. 

A. 20. They meet all the best market requirements. 
Would use a strain that has size as well as laying qualities. 

A. 21. White Wyandottes. 

A. 22. They are as large as fowls can be and still be 
active, and good layers must be active to be good layers and 
stand forcing. Also command best prices in market as broilers 
or roasters on account of shape of body. 



STUDY THE STANDARD 

READ LEADING POULTRY JOURNALS- 
GET AND BREED QUALITY— SHOW YOUR 
BEST— ATTEND THE SHOWS AND GET 
ADVICE FROM JUDGES AND BREEDERS 

EDWARD E. LING, South Portland, Me. 

WHITE WYANDOTTE SPECIALIST 

A. 9. A trio, or breeding pen. 

A. 10. Would visit a reliable specialist of the breed I 
preferred. Would select the best trio or pen that I could induce 
him to sell me. If I could not buy the birds I wanted, would 
buy eggs from the best pen he would sell me eggs from, bearing 
in mind first, last and all the time, quality and not price. 

A. 11. Buy a standard-bred cockerel of any of the Ameri- 
can breeds you prefer and mate to a few of your best females. 
The second season select the best pullets from this mating and 
mate back to this cock bird, or preferably buy a cockerel and 
mate to a few of these pullets. Each season select the best of 
their offspring of these matings for your breeding pens. 

.4. 12. First subscribe for one or more leading poultry 
journals. Obtain a "Standard." Study the section pertaining 
to the breed and variety you have selected. Visit the yards of 
a successful specialist of the variety you desire. Obtain a trio 
of good standard line-bred birds, or, if you prefer, as good eggs 
as he will sell you. If you have studied your Standard carefully, 
you will be able to select your best birds for your breeder,-. 
Reject such birds as show serious defects, as deformities or 
weakness. Take your best birds to some of the fairs and poultry 
shows. Even if you do not win you will know what the judges 
think of your birds. Try each year to remedy defects and mate 
more carefully. 

.4. 13. Subscribe for one or more of the leading poultry 
journals. Buy a Standard of Perfection. Study both care- 

25 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



fully. Buy a nice breeding pen from some specialist of the 

I need preferred. Have him mate the birds for you, which is 
very important. Tell him frankly that you are a beginner and 
if he is honest he will be glad to help you get results, for if you 
are pleased you will he more than likely to tell your friends, 
which in turn helps the specialist. Have a judge or specialist 
Belect your exhibition birds and also mate your breeding pens. 
Scud your best birds to the shows, even if you do not win you 
have a chance to compare your birds with other good birds. 

I I a cure card shoWj you can learn much by studying the de- 
lects; try and overcome them in your next year's ma tings. 

.1. 11. Invest in one or two good poultry journals, also 
a Standard of Perfection. Study carefully the breed you prefer. 

Buy one or e sittings of eggs from a specialist in the breed 

you desire. Select a fancier that you believe breeds the birds 
he exhibits. 

.1. 15. Same as answers to Xos. 13 and 14. 

.1. 111. Would buy eggs from a specialist in the breed 1 
desired. Would if possible obtain the assistance of some suc- 
cessful fancier in selecting my birds both for exhibition and 
breeding pens. Have them assist in mating the breeding pens. 
Obtain a Standard of Perfection and become familiar with the 

breed that you intended to keep, ('nil Faithfully and look care- 
fully tot he same detail-. 

.1, 17. White Wyandottes. 

.1. is. First: They have been more successful with me. 

Second: Because the demand lor White Wyandpttes is 
n,, i confined '" anj one section or state, but extends all over 
i lie country, ami high class birds find ready buyers. 

Third: If the number "I laid- exhibited at nearly all the 
leading shows means anything, they are by far the mosl popular 
variety today. 

I ..iirt h : They coml me both fancy ami general utility and 
thev have the largest specially Club in America behind them. 

Fifth: They have built me up a pi, sperous, Fancy poultry 
business from a single investment of S5.C0 in eggs, my original 
capital invested. 

.1. id. White Wyandottes. 

.1. I'll. They can be marketed at lop prices from an 
eight-ounce squab broiler to a large roaster. I have, today. 
cockerels a feu days under six months old that weigh 8j lb-, 
strong, and some that weigh from 7 to 7' II - I hey will stand 
heavy feeding without losing use of legs, anil with their plump, 

stocky bodies, lire nearly always ready for market. 

.1. 21. White Wyandottes. 

.1. 22. Because I believe no breeds or varieties stand bo 

high For i ml ination of both fancy and market qualities as 

the American breeds, and I consider While Wyandottes at the 

heat I "i i he class. 



BUY BREEDING STOCK EARLY 

FALL OR EARLY WINTER BEST TIME TO 
START-GIVES TIME TO KNOW FLOCK 
AND LEARN SUCCESSFUL MANAGEMENT 

N. V. FOGG, Mt. Sterling, Ky. 

SINGLE COMB WHITE LEGHORN SPECIALIST 

.1. 9. I would buy fowls in the fall or early winter. 

A. 1(1. By buying a small flock of good birds in the fall 
one can feed and care for them during the winter and gain a 
great deal of practical expeiience, which is very valuable to 
anyone in the poultry business. 

Feeding and caring for the breeding stock dming the breed- 
ing season will give some good ideas for feeding and caring 



for the young birds. If one is successful in raising the young 
birds he will have a good sized flock for the next winter and by 
caring for the small flock the winter before he will know better 
what the fowls need, and thus will not make the mistakes on 
the large flock that he made on the small one. By buying stock 
from a reliable breeder the birds will be mated as they should 
be and the owner will get better results. 

.4. 11. First of all, get him to realize the value of good, 
warm, well-ventilated houses in which to care for his birds. 
Dispose of the three, four and five-year-old hens and the cock 
birds, retaining a good flock of his best young hens. Buy a 
few pure-bred male birds to mate with the hens, also buy a few 
sittings of eggs of the one variety best suited to his purpose. 

.4. 12. I would advise him to keep only one breed and 
give the pullets and hens free range. Be careful that everything 
is clean about the place. Would keep the cocks and cockerels 
in a nice grassy yard of good size. If he is going to raise many 
young birds would advise him to use the very best incubators 
and brooders, as they are better than the natural method when 
many young birds are raised. 

If he has many fowls to sell or is going to sell eggs for 
hatching during the breeding season, would advise him to ad- 
vertise in a small way at first and advertise more as he has 
birds or eggs to sell. If for market, furnish a choice article, 
delivering it to your consumer direct for a fancy price. 

.4. 13. After deciding on the variety which he wishes to 
breed I would suggest that he purchase a high-scoring pen 
properly mated from a reliable breeder. He should have a 
-mall incubator and a sufficient number of brooders to properly 
care for the chicks, which should have plenty of room. 

He should take one of the best poultry journals and more 
if he has the time to read them; also read the writings of the 
best writers of poultry subjects. All his houses should be 
modern. For feeding the chicks, growing and breeding stock 
would advise the use of the very best feeds. 

.1. 14. Would recommend to the beginner with small 
means, that he fitx a house that is warm and has plenty of venti- 
1 at ion, with as lit lo cost as possible, and then buy a few common 
hen- to use to incubate the eggs which he buys during the breed- 
ing season. After deciding on the variety he wishes to breed, 
buy some eggs for hatching from some of the best breeders, get 
eggs from as good breeding stock as he can afford to buy. If 
he intends to show at any of the fall shows would advise buying 
some eggs early in the season so as to have birds ready for these 

shows. 

.4. 15. First of all, he should locate as near as possible to 
a high class market with good shipping facilities and grain 
markets. He should find if possible a farm with a good location 
for poultry houses. I would prefer land that is rolling with 
drainage toward the south; this will let all the poultry houses 
lace the south, as they should be to get the best results. The 
farm should be high and dry with a good water supply. One 
slatting the business on a large scale should get a farm large 
enough to raise feed for his birds; all buildings should be modern 
and as convenient as possible so as to save labor. He should 
have one to help him who has a thorough knowledge of the 
business. 

.4. 16. He should consider market, location, and get as 
large a farm as he can afford so he may raise products that will 
help to pay for the farm. His houses should be warm and as 
convenient as possible. If he can not have a man with him 
that knows the business would advise him to get the veiy best 
books and read them carefully; also not to go into the business 
too fast, study your business and add more to the plant as you 
think best. 

.4. 17. Single Comb W 7 hite Leghorns. 

.4. 18. I have bred several different breeds and find the 
S. C. White Leghorn comes nearer my ideal than any other; 



STARTING IN THE BUSINESS 



high scoring birds are sold for high prices. There is always a 
good demand for breeding birds. All pullets that can be raised 
will bring extra good prices if sold as layers. 

The S. G. White Leghorns are coming to the front fast; 
they are active, fine layers, very hardy, mature early and always 
present an attractive appearance. 



A. 17. White Wyandottes. 

A. 18. Because I think they are the best all purpose 
fowl before the public today. As table fowl they are not ex- 
celled by any other variety. For hardiness they stand the test 
in both hot and cold weather. As prolific layers, they are in 
a class by themselves. 



STUDY YOUR BREED 



GET AND KEEP THE BEST 



BUILD UP THE FLOCK— SHOW— AD- 
VERTISE— AS BUSINESS GROWS LET 
THE ADVERTISEMENTS GROW ALSO 

B. S. HUME, French Village, 111. 

WHITE WYANDOTTE SPECIALIST 

A. 9. Fowls. 

A. 10. Because eggs are so uncertain and when you buy 
fowls you know just what you are getting. 

A. 11. By placing White Wyandotte males with his 
flock thereby infusing new blood year by year, building up his 
flock, enabling him to have more and better poultry. 

A. 12. Buy a lot of graded utility White Wyandotte 
females and buy several high grade males to mate with them, 
and as soon as this is begun he must commence to advertise. 

A. 13. Go to some reliable breeder who has plenty of 
good birds for sale, and pay him the price. He will tell you 
how to mate for best results. But before doing this make up 
your mind as to what breed would be most satisfactory, and 




A PORTABLE HOUSE USED FOR REARING CHICKEN'S 



Study their habits. Let the public know what you have, through 
the poultiy journals. Be honest and uptight in your dealings 
and success will be your reward. 

.4. 14. Buy a tlio of good birds as cheap as you can get 
them, and study their qualities. Insert a classified advertise- 
ment in a poultry paper after one year's expeiienee'. As your 
business grows let your advertising grow also. If you have a 
poultiy show nearby, show your birds. Nothing will leach you 
the tine points of an exhibition bird as experience in the show 
room will. 



CHOICE SPECIMENS WILL SERVE FOR SHOW, 
SALE AND BREEDING— CULLS SELL READ- 
ILY IN THE MARKET- FOWLS PREFERRED 
TO EGGS FOR START — " GO SLOW." 

G. W. BROWN, Camden, Arkansas 

BREEDER OF WHITE WVANDOTTES. BARRED ROCKS, INDIAN GAMES. BUFF 

COCHINS. LIGHT BRAHMAS, LECHORNS. PIT GAMES, 

WILD AND BRONZE TURKEYS 

A. 9. I would buy the fowls by all means. 

A. 10. In buying eggs we take many chances of getting 
poor results, as many things can keep eggs from hatching. I 
would buy of an honest breeder, who could be trusted and who 
by his show record had proven the quality of his breed, and have 
him select and mate up for me each bird in line the very same 
as he would breed them himself. 

A. 11. Simply to improve common stock for the market, 
my advice to the farmer or poultryman is to get good, large, 
strong, well bred males each year, improving and bringing the 
stock up to the desired qualities. 

A. 12. To breed fancy poultry as well as market stock, 
my advice would be to get a pen of some American variety, 
and buy the very best line-bred blood to be had, urging the 
breeder to use his best judgment in selecting and mating them 
the same as for himself. All the choice specimens raised can be 
sold for fancy breeding or exhibition, while the culls can be 
readily sold on the market. No matter how fine the quality 
may be, there will be many unfit for anything but the market. 
With the best a fine strain can soon be built up, getting the 
cream of the fancy as well as market business. 

A. 13. Buy the very best line-bred blood to be had from 
a breeder that will select and mate them in line, just as the 
birds were bred. Don't buy too many birds, no matter how 
much cash you may have, for first you must go slow, and pre- 
pare yourself to handle the stock. Jumping in the poultry 
business, with plenty of cash and no experience, is the cause of 
many failures. 

A. 14. If I had but little money, the larger pait of it 
would go toward buying the very best line-bred blood to be had 
and a good cheap, comfortable home for the birds. Then, in- 
stead of buying quantity, get quality every time, as a choice 
trio of birds at S25. to SSO. is far better than a score of poor 
birds at the same price. 

.4. 15. With ample funds, go slow and buy the very 
best. Employ men of expeiienee and study the work night and 
day. Go slow and watch and study as you go, and success 
will crown your efforts. 

.4. 16. Buy the best if only a very few. and try to build 
a foundation with the best blood, then study the work, and 
enlarge the business as the means and expeiienee will justify. 
No matter how much or how little cash we may have, all depends 
on our experience and knowledge of the business, just as in all 
other work. No one could jump into any business without 
experience and ever hope to make a success. All large industries 
have been built up slowly ami have had men of expeiienee at 
the helm. 



27 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



A. 17. I have bred over 40 varieties of poultry, and 
after four years of close attention and study, began to cull out, 
keeping only what I found to be in the greatest demand, the 
best all round combination birds. Of all the best, my choice 
would be the Barred Rocks and White Wyandottes. 

A. 18. They are in the greatest demand and combine, 
nearer than any other varieties, all the good qualities; being the 
best of table fowls as well as egg producers, and a great farmer's 
and fancier's fowl. 

A. 19. White Wyandottes. 

A. 20. They mature quicker and make a large early 
bird, and are easily dressed for market. They have a very 
choice quality of flesh as well as the best appearance. 

A. 21. Barred Rocks and White Wyandottes. 

.4. 22. The Barred Rocks as a fancier's fowl, bring the 
best prices and are in the greatest demand. White Wyandottes 
are also a great fancier's fowl, as well as the best of market 
fowls. 



DISPOSE OF ALL MONGRELS 

BOTH TIME AND MONEY ARE LOST TRYING 
TO IMPROVE MONGRELS— GET PURE-BREDS 

CHARLES E. VASS, Washington, N. J. 

BREEDER OF SINGLE AND ROSE COMB BUFF ORPINGTONS. AND 
SINGLE COMB WHITE AND BLACK ORPINGTONS 

.4. 9. I would buy choice fowls, if only a pair. 

A. 10. In buying eggs the different climates oftimes 
prove a detriment to a satisfactory hatch, which is very dis- 
couraging to both buyer and seller. If stock is purchased one 
is not Inlying something he has not seen, and as a rule promi- 
nent poultrymen assure the buyer satisfaction. 

A. 11. Fanners lose both time and money in trying to 
improve a flock of mongrels. Better dispose of all mongrels and 
purchase a pen of pure-breds. Any of the heavy varieties, 
especially the Orpington, make excellent market fowls. Farmers 

should remember that clean legged fowls are the most eagerly 

sought after. 

.1. 12. Fanoy and utility are profitable if one is competent 

to select the prize birds at the proper age. I would suggest 
that all birds not intended for breeders, especially males be 
marketed when six to eight weeks old in order to secure the 
highest market prices for broilers and to give more room for the 
growing prize birds. 

.4. 13. First and most important of all is a proper loca- 
tion; one should be selected witli a slight slope to the south and 
gravel soil if possible. The second consideration should be the 
buildings; there has been a great deal of stress laid on buildings. 
One that suits the writer best is a building not over 30 feet in 
length divided into three pens each, and as many of this kind as 
necessary. Third, look up a breeder of sound reputation who 
has a good show record and is a specialist, and purchase your 
choice of the 70 or 80 varieties. 

.4. 14. One with limited means should go very slow. 
Better start with a pair of first c-la^s specimens and study your 
birds from year to year, than to invest too heavily and fail with 
an utter disgust for the poultry business. 

.4. 17. Single or Rose Comb Buff, White or Black Or- 
pingtons. 

.4. is. The Orpingtons being a new variety, combining 
qualities for both the fancy and utility side of the business, are 
eagerly sought after. They are grand layers and a desirable 
table fowl as well as being among the foremost at our leading 
exhibitions. 



A. 19. Buff Orpingtons. 

A. 20. Always ready for market from six weeks on 
being plump and juicy. 



BEGIN WITH YEARLING HENS 

MORE ECONOMICAL— QUALITY KNOWN 
FROM FIRST — EGGS FOR HATCHING 
AN UNKNOWN QUANTITY — PRACTI- 
CAL ADVICE FOR THE FARMER 

ALBERT F. DIKEMAN, South Peabody, Mass. 

SPECIALTY BREEDER OF WHITE WYANDOTTES AND 
WHITE PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

A. 9. Fowls, consisting of yearling hens and a good 
cockerel. 

A. 10. Fowls are more economical, — the quality can be 
determined as soon as bought. Eggs bought for hatching are 
an unknown quantity. The best might be paid for, while the 
quality of them would depend entirely on the integrity of the 
breeder from whom they were purchased. I would prefer to 
put my money into a few fine specimens rather than to see 
how many the same money would buy. In buying eggs I would 
be obliged to lose a wmole season before seeing any results and, 
even then, might have to start all over again. 

A. 11. Select the best hens, on the farm, that nearest 
conform to the size and color of flesh and leg that his market 
demands. From these select those most uniform in color. Buy 
enough good, pure-bred cockerels of any one variety that are 
nearest in shape and color to the hens. From the progeny 
mate the cocks (cockerels bought previous season) to the pullets 
that nearest approach the females of the cock's variety in shape 
and color. Mate the best cockerels back to the hens. This 
makes the second seasons' chicks £ of the blood bought, and 
gives the quickest and best start possible without first buying 
all pure blood. 

A. 12. Buy as many good birds as his means will permit. 
Select the breed or variety, within the range of his market 
requirements, that appeals to him most. The second season 
mate the best cocks back to their best pullets and the cockerels 
back to their dams. When in need of new blood go to the 
breeder from whom the first purchase was made. Don't try to 
improve your stock by buying males from a different strain, as 
the usual result is a lot of culls caused by too violent crossing 
of alien strains. 

A. 13. Attend all the representative shows that you can 
during the season previous to your starting in the busi- 
ness. Select the breed or variety that you like best. Question 
breeders and judges closely; make notes of their answers. Be 
governed by the preponderance of this cumulative evidence. 
Select a breeder in whom you can place confidence and allow 
him to select the stock and mate it for you. Buy the best he 
has if he will sell it. Buy a "Standard" before you buy your 
stock. Make yourself familiar with, at least, that part of it 
that describes the particular kind that you are to purchase. 
Stick to the breeder from whom you first bought and if you 
want to make a change clean out all of his strain and try a new 
one. It is only by breeding birds in fine that the best results 
are obtained in raising exhibition poultry. 

.4. 14. Buy a trio of the best your means will permit, 
then proceed as in answer to question No. 13. 

A. 15. Buy the best to be obtained of the breed or 
variety that, within your market requirements, best suits you, 
weight, color of feathers, skin and legs, being given due con- 
sideration. Mate and breed as in answer to question No. 13. 
Always select the most vigorous, up to weight specimens, with 



28 



STARTING IN THE BUSINESS 



due regard for shape and color. Use plenty of printer's ink 
(advertising) and show every where possible. These two re- 
quirements are absolutely essential to success. 

A. 16. Hire out for at least a year, and this would be 
much better with some progressive plant. When you think 
you have mastered the general principles of mating, breeding 
and raising, put all the cash you can spare into the best stock 
obtainable, then proceed as in answer to No. 15. 

A. 17. First: White Wyandottes; Second: White Ply- 
mouth Rocks; Third: Rhode Island Reds. 

A. 18. White Wyandottes are the most popular show 
birds today. If they should cease to be such they would still 
be the best "general purpose" fowl, being always plump, lay 
large brown eggs, and mature quicker than the Rocks. White 
Plymouth Rocks second, for the reason that they make a larger 
soft roaster than either of the other two. The Reds are persis- 
tent layers but are very prone to go broody besides having 
black pin feathers when in the broiler stage of growth. White 
Wyandottes are fit to kill at any time after they are four weeks 
old, and do not show such long legs and neck, when dressed, 
as do the Rocks. 

A. 19. White Wyandottes. 

A. 20. Quick maturity, preponderance of breast meat, 
prolific layers of good sized brown eggs, tractability when in- 
cubating eggs, quiet, gentle mothers. Always command the 
top price in the market either for eggs or meat. 

A. 21. White Wyandottes, Rhode Island Reds. 

A. 22. White Wyandottes for fancy and market, Reds 
for winter eggs. The Reds have a heavier coat of feathers, 
making them able to withstand extreme cold better than any 
other American variety. Are made up of three or four different 
breeds, thus insuring great vitality. 



START WITH A SMALL FLOCK 

INCREASE AS FAST AS MEANS PERMIT- 
EXHIBIT AT LOCAL SHOWS— ADVERTISE 

ROWLAND G. BUFFINGTQN, Somerset, Mass. 

SPECIALTY BREEDER OF WYANDOTTES. BUFF, SILVER PENCILED 
AND COLUMBIAN; PLYMOUTH ROCKS, BUFF AND PARTRIDGE; BUFF 
ORPINGTONS; R. I. REDS. WHITE AND PARTRIDGE COCHIN BANTAMS 

A. 9. Fowls. 

A. 10. We could begin to do business sooner. A small 
flock of fowls bought early in the season and all eggs hatched 
until first of July would, if we had fairly good success in raising, 
give us quite a large flock for business the next season. 

A. 11. I would advise the farmer to do just as I would 
do, purchase a flock of the breed desired and raise all he could 
the first season. Another course might be advisable, — buy 
male of pure blood and cross with the mongrel hens. 

A. 12. Do as advised in No. 11, only purchase some of 
the best blooded stock and he will have fancy poultry and im- 
prove the market poultry as well. 

A. 14. Without much money to invest, the best plan 
would be to begin with one variety on a small scale in connec- 
tion with some other business and increase the poultry part as 
fast as means would permit. Show some birds at local shows; 
advertise sparingly at first and increase as vou have goods to 
sell. 

A. 15. The first course for such a beginner is to learn the 
business, as it is impossible to get any one to do it for hini 
without spending $5. to get $2 

A. 17. Buff Plymouth Rocks, Buff Wyandottes and Buff 
Leghorns. 



A. 18. While some of the other American breeds may be 
equally as good for market poultry, no breed will equal them 
for egg production. The Buff Leghorns are hardy, large size, 
lay a large egg. Some of the other varieties of Leghorn may 
have these good qualities. I prefer them on account of color. 

A. 19. I should have to experiment some with crosses 
to decide this question. 



KEEP PURE-BREDS 

MORE SATISFACTORY THAN CROSSES— DON'T SELL 
BIRDS YOU CAN'T REPLACE FOR THE MONEY 

W. B. CANDEE, De Witt, N. Y. 

WHITE WYANDOTTE SPECIALIST 

A. 9. Fowls. 

A. 10. Results much more certain, that is your eggs 
would be better than those bought. Advantage of seeing just 
what you are breeding from. 

A. 11. For the farmer, buy a good sitting of eggs, put 
them under a hen, mark the chicks, get a good man to sort them 
in the fall. Keep the best cockerel, mate him to the pullets 
that are not disqualified, set all eggs the following spring, have 
them sorted that fall again, by which time he should begin to 
learn what a good one is; then he can do his own sorting. The 
next spring get a cock or cockerel from the same party from 
which he purchased the eggs, and mate him to a small pen of 




AN EXCELLENT BROOD COOP AND RUN 



the very best females. Keep only pure-breds; do not cross. 
In time he can kill all the mongrels and he will have a flock that 
will be more satisfactory than if he undertakes to cross up with 
pure-breds. 

.4. 12. Same as No. 11. 

.4. 14. Same as No. 11 for his birds. Build a small 
colony house, say 8 by 10, or 10 by 12, and use as a breeding 
house. Then as he goes on if he wants to build a large house he 
could use the small one for a chick colony house, or if he decides 
to quit he has not lost a small fortune in the business. 

.4. 15. Get an expert to lay out a good sensible plant 
and let the same man. if ho is a good judge of birds, go to some 
reliable breeder and select as many good birds as the beginner 
wishes to buy. Put those in the now house with a competent 
man to take care of them. Use all eggs for hatching and keep 



2!) 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



all the young birds until the required number is reached. Don't 
.sell what you can't replace for the money, no matter how flatter- 
ing the offer. 

.1. Hi. Same as answer to No. 11, but buy both eggs and 
a g I pen and follow advice given in answer to No. 15. 

A. 17. White Wyandottes. 

.1. 18. Popular, good sellers, good mothers, and market 
birds for the farmer, or for the one wishing to keep only a few 
birds good broilers and roasters, and will lay eggs in winter if 
properly bred, hatched and cared for. Attractive in appearance, 
stand confinement, are not flyers, will stand severe cold, and 
"Inn ready to sell at market prices, they bring good prices. 

.1. lit. White Wyandottes. 

.1. 20. Same as answer to No. IS. 



VISIT THE SHOWS AND BREEDERS 

STUDY YOCR CHOSEN VARIETY— ONE 'IS ENOUGH- 
KEEP ONLY THE BEST— MARKET THE BALANCE 

GEORGE A. BARROW'S, Groton, N. Y. 

SINGLE COMB WHITE I ECHORN SPECIALIST 

.1 . 9. 1 should buy fowls. 

A. HI. With my present knowledge I believe that I 

could buy fowls that would suit me and therefore get a quicker 
start than 1 could with eggs and be more certain of having 

good sloek. 

.1. II. My advice would be to discard the mongrels 
entirely ami start with pure-bred sioek. 

.1 12. I would advise the purchase of a pen of tin' very 

best birds that could be found ,il some One "I the large breeds. 

ii the object is iii sell fancy poultry, my advice is to buy the 

verj best birds that can be found regardless of cost. 

t 13. If I were a beginner with ample funds the first 
thing I should do would be lo decide on what one breed (not 
I til' I most desired and why. Second: I would then study 
that breed from the "Standard" and would visit several shows 
and make it a point to study the variety 1 desired. 

Third: I should then visit several of the reliable breeders 
of my chosen Variety and if possible lake a competent judge 
wit h me 

Fourth: I should buy a fevi of the best specimens that I 

could find regardless of cost, but in buying 1 should buy li 

(he (lock that was I he best as a whole, and not from the Hock 
that had a few line specimens but as a whole was inferior. 

Fifth: Alter buying I should make thai variety a constant 

study. 

A. II. The beginner without much money would have to 
study his chosen variety but probably visit les„ shows, less 
breeders and do without a judge. He would do well to pick 
out the breeder thai he had i he most confidence in and then 
trust him to furnish him some of his very best eggs or a few 
birds. 1 think a lew eggs would be the best and then let him 
study the birds as they grow up. 

A. 1.5. 1 should advise one variety for both fancy and 
market, and with ample funds would purchase as many birds 
as 1 desired of one of the large varieties, all good stock. As I 
bred them year by year I should keep only the best from 
which in sell fancy birds and market the balance.- 

A. 111. The beginner with moderate means would prob- 
ably do better to purchase eggs of some large variety, buying 
only as many as his money will care for, feed, and house after 
batched. Then as his sales of eggs and market poultry and 
fancy stock come along he can enlarge his business. 

.1. 17. White Leghorns. 



A. IS. I believe S. C. White Leghorns to be the best 
breed for laying purposes, also to be the most popular breed 
of heavy layers of large white eggs. 

A. 19. Probably White Plymouth Rocks. 

A. 20. First: I have taken a fancy to this particulaa 
variety of large fowls. 

Second: They are among the most popular breeds. 

A. 21. White Rocks or White Wyandottes. 

.4. 22. Simply a liking for these kinds. 



START WITH WELL MATED FOWLS 

THEN CAN SEE AND KNOW 
QUALITY— RAISE PURE-BREDS 

H. H. FIKE, Libertyville, Illinois. 

WHITE WYANDOTTE SPECIALIST 

A. 9. Fowls by all means. 

A. 10. Could see the quality of fowls and know what 1 
had. If I bought eggs they might be from a dozen different 
pens of stock not mated properly, and it would take me years 
to breed up. 

A. 11. Sell off all mongrel stock, and raise full blood 
White Wyandottes. 

.1. 12. Same answer as No. 11. Selling the culls for 
market poultry. 

A. 13. Buy birds from a know-n breeder, and pay at 
least 825. to 850. per bird. 

.4. 14. Buy just as good birds. If compelled to, start 
w il h one pair. 

.4. 15. The two don't go together on a large scale; fancy 
and market cannot be combined and run on a large scale pro- 
lilably. 

.4. 16. Don't start at all. 

.1. 17. White Wyandottes. 

A. IS. Because they are as salable as twenty dollar gold 
pieces. The demand is far greater than the supply for top 
in it i hers. 

.1. 19. White Wyandottes. 

.4. 20. Can be brought to broiler age sooner than any 
other breed, their yellow skin and legs commanding highest 
market price. 



GET A GOOD FOUNDATION 

WORK CONSTANTLY FOR BETTER POUL- 
TRY AND MORE OF IT- HAVE FAITH IN 
YOUR FLOCK— CULL THE YEAR ROUND 

WILLIAM H. ROBINSON, La Fayette, Ind. 

BREEDER OF BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS AND 
WHITE WYANDOTTES 

.4. 9. I would buy fowls, a few, and the best. 

A. 10. With eggs you cannot see what your stock is 
until matured; w4ien buying stock you can buy on approval 
from most any reliable breeder and if not satisfactory it may be 
returned for good stock or money refunded. When starting 
with the fow4s you have a good foundation to begin with, and 
can see what your coming youngsters, if properly cared for, 
will develop into when matured. 

A. 11. Would cull quite severely to my best stock in one 
and two-year-old females, throwing out all male birds, and buy 



30 



STARTING IN THE BUSINESS 



from a reliable breeder some good pure-bred cockerels which 
would not require nearly as many as to buy the females. In 
this way and by constantly introducing new blood by pure-bred 
male birds, a good flock of farm poultry can be secured. 

•4. 12. Work himself constantly to "better poultry and 
more of it," buy nothing but the best blood, advertise, and ad- 
vertise the best, have faith in your flock; if you do not, your 
neighbor certainly will not and will look elsewhere. Cull almost 
the year round, keep your flock looking well and vigorous, and 
you will be surprised how your surplus cockerels will sell. 

A. 13. From experience, would work slow, keep but a 
few, but the best your means would permit, do not house too 
many in your coops or buildings, breed for constitutional vigor, 
and breed for exhibition specimens only; this you will gain only 
by a limited number, proper housing, and care and feeding. 
Advertise moderately, and strive to make every sale far or near 
a satisfied customer. Time and stock will tell. Guarantee your 
birds in every way, or in other words, give good value for value 
received, and success is bound to crown your efforts. Also will 
say, do not be afraid to show your stock in good company; 
often times we find them no better or as good, in what is called 
the hottest company. 

.4. 14. Answered in above. 

.4. 15. Have buildings and poultry in accordance with 
funds and advertise largely, using the best journals, the best of 
stock, and good sound judgment, both with your poultry as 
well as your customers. 

A. 10. Breed the best, cull closely for your market 
poultry, cull almost constantly, then breed and sell only the best. 
Advertise by all means in good journals; you can throw hard 
earned money away no faster than by poor advertising in poor 
journals, to say nothing of postage and time. 

A. 17. Almost any of the Plymouth Rocks or Wyan- 
dottes, or a breed that is in big demand. 

.4. 18. My reason is that a good, well known breed is 
always in good demand, and with any article that is in good 
demand a good business can be done with less introducing and 
advertising. 

A. 19. Can be answered as above, although the old re- 
liable Barred Plymouth Rocks I believe are the leaders. 

A. 20. Because they are known the world over, are 
beautiful fowls, are admired by everybody, are ready for market 
at most any age, will stand confinement well when necessary, 
are truly an American breed; others have their fancy and come 
and go, but the old reliable Barred Plymouth Rock is in the 
lead and are the best general purpose fowl in the world. 

A. 21. Barred Plymouth Rocks and White Wyandottes. 

A. 22. Barred Plymouth Rocks, as I have said before, 
are the old reliable for market or show room. Next to them in 
many years experience I have found no fowl more profitable or 
more beautiful as show birds than White Wyandottes. 



"MAKE HASTE SLOWLY" 

GET THE BEST— CULL CLOSELY— 
STUDY STANDARD — ADVERTISK 

GUS L. HAINLINE, Lamar, Missouri 

WHITE WYANDOTTE SPECIALIST 

.4. 9. 1 would buy fowls. 

A. 10. I would know just what type of fowl 1 wanted 
and what kind of mating would produce it and get I hat mating; 
while there would be a good deal of uncertainty in the hatch of 

;i large consignment of eggs. "A house built on a good rock 
foundation will stand." 



A. 11. Would advise the buying of medium grade cock- 
erels of some fancier that had a reputation for good fowls; and 
unless his mongrels showed decided "Asiatic" type, I would 
advise Wyandotte cockerels, as they are, I believe, the best 
foragers in the world and they make the best broilers. 

A. 12. Choose his breed; buy as good a pen as he could 
afford, or get; yard them, and raise every chick possible from 
them; keep all pullets raised, sell off all mixed cocks and cock- 
erels and put the pure stock cockerels in with mixed stock; 
mate up the best birds again and hatch their eggs and sell 
others on market. When stocked up, get a good judge to score 
surplus stock, advertise in the best journal published, cull 
closely, and treat customers on the square. 

A. 13. Buy a copy of the "Standard." Choose a good 
reliable breeder; get the best he will sell right; have him ship 
them to a good judge for inspection; raise all you can; make 
haste slowly, study your fowls, advertise and sell surplus cock- 
erels, don't let go of your good pullets. 

A. 17. Partridge Wyandottes. 

A. 18. They are the ideal fancier's fowl and their popu- 
larity is increasing rapidly; they are as yet in a crude state and 
will admit of wonderful development and improvement. 

A. 19. White Wyandottes. 

A. 20. They make the best broilers in the world; dress 
very nicely with clean, yellow skin and legs; ideal shape, with 
plump, round appearance. They are fine rustlers, healthy, bear 
confinement, and their white plumage and altogether pretty 
appearance would enable one to get the highest market price 
for them alive. 



SEE WHAT YOU ARE GETTING 

THEN YOU KNOW WHAT TO EXPECT— 
FOWLS BEST FOR START— START WITH 
A FEW AND HAVE THEM ALL GOOD 

J. L. JEFFERSON, Des Plaines, 111. 

WHITE PLYMOUTH ROCK SPECIALIST 

.4. 9. I would buy fowls. 

A. 10. In buying fowls, you can see what you are getting, 
and have some idea what to expect from them. 

.4. 11. By getting pure-bred males. 

A. 12. By getting a pen of good birds for a starter and 
then, after the first year, sell off all his mongrels. 

A. 13. By buying the best pen that can be found, in 
other words, go to the best breeder of the variety that he wishes 
to handle, and buy if possible the best he has, or the very ones 
the breeder wishes to keep for his own use, regardless of the 
price. Get few birds, but have them all good. Have them 
resemble one another, and come as near to the Standard as 
possible. 

.4. 14. Buy the best pen his circumstances will permit; 
if he is not a good judge of the breed, trust to the honesty of 
the breeder. If he knows the breed, go to the breeder's yards 
and do his own selecting. Always go to the breeder's yard- if 
possible, as there is where you will find out how his Bock aver- 
ages a- a whole. 

.4. 1"). Buy the best pen possible regardless of every- 
thing, but -re whal you arc buying if possible. Perhaps a better 
way would be to buy say three pen- from three of tin- best 
brooders, breed each pen separately, and then keep only the 
birds from the pen that turned out the best, and sell off all the 
others. Stick to this strain and this man for new blood. Ad- 
vertise and show; the more you advertise and show the quicker 
you will get a good paying business, hut do not Ix- afraid to 



31 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



spend money for advertising. Advertise all the time, and never 
stop showing. Don't be afraid of getting beaten at a show 
after you have made a good winning at a few shows. You must 
expect that as no one breeder has all the good birds, you must 
not expect to win all the time. It won't hurt your business 
half as much to get beaten as not to show at all. Get your name 
before the people in all the ways possible. Advertise in all ways 
that you can think of, but the poultry journals are the "main 
stays." 

A. 16. Buy the best pen you can afford, and go slow, 
learn the business from the ground up, and learn it well. Don't 
depend on some one else to raise the chicks for you, for if you 
can't raise them or don't know how to do it, you may depend 
on it that you can not hire some one else to raise them. Have 
never yet seen a plant pay where the owner had to hire some 
one to do the work, that is, do all parts of the work. You may 
be able to hire a man to clean the houses, water the chickens, 
etc., but what would he do when it came to running a brooder 
and feeding the little chicks? This work should all be done by 
yourself, if you wish to succeed. 

A. 17. White Rocks or Wyandottes. 

A. 18. There is more demand for these two breeds than 
any others. You will find more of them in the show room. 
They are the best market fowl, and best layers taking the year 
through. 

A. 19. White Wyandottes. 

A. 20. They mature the earliest of the Americans, they 
start laying before they are six months old, they are the best 
broilers at an earlier age, and they are very hardy. 

A. 21. White Rocks or White Wyandottes. 

A. 22. These two breeds are in as large a demand as any 
others if not larger, for the fancy part, and they both dress 
right for the market, both are good size for that purpose, and 
plump out well at all ages. 



FOWLS AND EGGS 

FIFTY EGGS HATCHED OUGHT 
TO GIVE TWO GOOD PENS 

D. F. PALMER & SON, Yorkville, 111. 

BREEDERS OF BARRED ROCKS EXCLUSIVELY 

A. 9. Fowls, if I had plenty of money. 
.4. 10. Then I would know the quality of stock I was 
going to breed from. If I was to buy eggs I would not buy less 
than 50 and would be well pleased if I raised two pens of five 
birds each. 

Buy large, vigorous cockerels. 

Commence by buying a few good birds or eggs 



A. 11. 
A. 12. 
and work up. 
A. 13. 
A. 14. 
A. 15. 



Buy the best you can find. 
Buy 100 eggs of a good breeder. 
As the good breeders go into winter quarters most 
of them have some good bargains that could be bought at a 
reasonable price, which if properly mated will soon breed up 
some choice birds. 

-4. 16. Same as Nos. 14 and 15. 
A. 17. Barred Plymouth Rocks. 

A, 18. They are very hardy and good foragers; we con- 
sider there are no better layers. 

A. 19. Barred Plymouth Rocks. 

A. 20. We consider them the best in all respects. 

A. 21. Barred Plymouth Rocks. 

A. 22. Same as No. 20. 



BREED ONLY ONE VARIETY 

START OFF CAREFULLY UNTIL 
EXPERIENCE IS GAINED— "LEARN 
TO CREEP BEFORE WALKING" 

DR. WILLIAM H. HUMISTON, Cleveland, O. 

WHITE WYANDOTTE SPECIALIST 

A. 9. Tt is best to purchase fowls. 

A. 10. In purchasing fowls you can select nearly ideal 
birds, standard weight or a little above, and those possessing: 
shape, color, health and vigor. Buy a pen of six or eight hens 
one year old, and mate them with an early hatched, full weight,, 
vigorous cockerel. In this way you can the first season obtain 
a good start and raise at least 100 birds. 

A. 11. Purchase a male bird for every twelve females. 
Select over weight White Wyandotte males. 

A. 12. Keep but one variety. Get a start by securing 
White Wyandottes from a winter laying strain. They make 
choice early broilers, excellent soft roasters, dress attractively, 
no dark pin feathers, have yellow skin and legs. Market the 
culls and obtain fancy prices for the balance. 

A. 13. Breed only one variety, and secure the stock 
from a successful breeder who has a reputation for square deal- 
ing and whose stock has won at the leading shows, and is line 
bred. 

A. 14. It is better to start off carefully until experience 
has been gained. Secure only a few, but high class birds. 

A. 15. It cannot be done successfully without practical 
knowledge and experience. He must purchase this by securing, 
an honest, experienced, hard working man to take charge of the 
business. 

A. 16. Learn to creep before walking, that is, go slowly 
until knowledge of the business is attained. 

A. 17. White Wyandottes. 
Beauty and utility. 

One of the American breeds, Wyandottes or Rocks. 
Early development, attractiveness when dressed, 

White Wyandottes in country, Buff or Partridge 

22. See answer to No. 18. 



UNDERSTAND YOUR FOWLS 



SUCCESS MORE CERTAIN WITH BIRDS YOU ADMIRE 
G. MONROE WOOD, Woodville, N. Y. 

BREEDER OF SINGLE COMB WHITE LEGHORNS 

A. 9. Fowls. 

A. 10. I would care for a flock of hens in a way so that 
I would get good fertile eggs and lots of them. 

A. 11. I would buy pure-bred males of some good re- 
liable poultryman. In the fall I would sort out the best pullets 
and the next spring I would mate these pullets to the same 
cocks, their fathers, also the cockerels to their mothers; that 
would give you well bred stock in a little time. 

A. 12. Same as No. 11. i 

A. 13. I would buy fowls or eggs, or both, from some 
good reliable and successful fancier. 

A. 17. White Leghorns. 

A. 18. After having and taking care of a strain of poultry 



A. 


18. 


A. 


19. 


A. 


20. 


and size 




A. 


21. 


for city. 




A. 


22. 



32 



STARTING IN THE BUSINESS 



that you admire, and understanding their ways and habits, you 
would be liable to be more successful with them than with some 
strain you did not fully understand. 

A. 19 I would select White Wyandottes, White Rocks 
or Light Brahmas. 

A. 20. They are larger and more adapted to broilers and 
roasters than the lighter breeds. 



GO SLOW UNTIL YOU LEARN 

DON'T TRY TO DO IT ALL FIRST SEA- 
SON—THE BUSINESS WELL LEARNED 
ANYONE CAN SUCCEED AND PROSPER 

CHARLES G. PAPE, Fort Wayne, Indiana 

SPECIALTY BREEDER OF SINGLE COMB BLACK MINORCAS 

A. 9. Prefer to buy fowls. 

A. 10. Buying fowls — seeing them before buying if pos- 
sible — is more satisfactory both to the breeder as well as pur- 
chaser. If the eggs do not hatch well the blame is always placed 
on the breeder personally. The trip or transit is hardly ever 
taken into consideration where they get rough usage, and some- 
times get overheated in express car or chilled on track. 

A. 11. Dispose of the smaller stock and buy several 
good, vigorous cock birds of a breed known either for their 
laying or table qualities — whichever the farmer prefers. 

A. 12. The farmer certainly has the best opportunity 
for breeding and selling fancy poultry — plenty of greens and 
grain. It is an easy matter to breed fancy poultry, breed several 




CANVAS SHELTERS FOR BROOD COOPS 

pens carefully and intelligently until you learn the variety 
thoroughly that one intends to breed. If for fancy stock, get 
them in show shape by careful feeding and training and en- 
deavor to win several good prizes. Advertise in a good poultry 
paper what you have for sale, be honest and liberal in your 
dealings and you will succeed if you keep stock and surround- 
ings clean. 

A. 13. Study several preferred varieties that the beginner 
thinks he would like to breed. By breeding them several years 
he will readily find which variety he thinks is best adapted 
to the surroundings, and which breed can be bred with the least 
trouble and expense. Stick to the variety, take advantage of 
every opportunity to improve the strain, and your stock will 
soon be in demand. 



A. 14. Anyone that has a suitable poultry house — 
medium sized run with plenty of sunshine and enough money to 
buy a trio of a standard variety — can succeed and prosper. 

A. 15. If inexperienced, get a good poultry farm mana- 
ger and go slow until you get the poultry business pretty well 
learned. Don't try to do it all the first season. 

A. 17. Single-Comb Black Minorcas. 

A. 18 First of all, they are layers of large white eggs 
and lots of them, they are easy to breed, mature early, are a 
splendid table fowl and one of the best varieties among the 
fancy birds. They always attract attention in the show room 
and I know of no prettier sight on a farm or city lot than a flock 
of high class S. C. Black Minorcas with their bright head-gear 
and elegant green lustre. 

A. 21. Have bred Minorcas for ten years and the longer 
I breed them the more I become attached to them. 



START,WITH FOWLS SAVES A YEAR 

FARMER WILL SUCCEED BEST WITH 
PURE-BREDS— TWO GOOD ONES BET- 
TER THAN TWENTY-FIVE POOR ONES 

J. M. WILLIAMS, North Adams, Michigan 

BREEDER OF SINGLE AND ROSE COMB BUFF.~ORPINGT0NS 

A. 9. Fowls. 

A. 10. Starting with fowls, we consider we are one year 
in advance of the one that buys eggs. After deciding on your 
choice of fowls you are going to breed, get your stock of a 
breeder of established reputation, and you have, in our mind, 
the kind of start you should have. 

A. 11. Buy pure-bred males. We do not believe in 
mongrels, it is just as easy to raise pure-bred poultry. Good 
utility stock can be bought very low of any particular breed 
you want. 

A. 12. By starting with pure-bred utility stock, and 
buying a good male or two a year of a reliable breeder, a flock 
can be improved each year. The farmer each year, with a small 
classified ad in one or tw 7 o good journals, can make three to five 
times more than the regular market prices. We have several 
farmers here doing that now and they are more than pleased. 

A. 13. Buy stock of a breeder of national reputation 
that will be honest with you and give you what you pa} 7 for. 
Make a study of the breed you like, and if you like poultry it is 
as easy as falling off a log. If you don't like to bother with 
your poultry, keep out of the fancy. 

A. 14. If you can't pay for any more than two good 
ones, get two good ones. They are worth twenty-five poor ones. 

A. 15. By all means quality — then get about half what 
you think you want, and then get experience. 

A. 17. Buff Orpingtons. 

A. IS. They are considered today by the poult rymen at 
large to be one of the best all around breeds; among the best 
layers in the chicken family, maturing early, making them 
valuable for broilers. As a fancy fowl in the show room, their 
massive shape and fine golden burl" appeals to everyone. 

A. 19. Buff Orpingtons. 

.1. 20. Early maturity — broilers — hardy constitution — 
great winter layers when eggs are highest. When sold as a fowl 
they are good size, much larger than the majority of the breeds. 

.1. 21. Buff Orpingtons. 

.1. '_"-'. You get a happy combination of both fancy and 
market poultry in the Orpingtons. They are one of the finest 
table fowls we haw, one of the greatest egi producers there is, 
anil in the greatest demand for fancy all over the world. 



33 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



GOOD START THE WHOLE THING 

LESS CHANCE OF DISCOURAGEMENT BEGIN- 
NING WITH FOWLS— GET THE BEST— DON'T 
TIE UP TOO MUCH MONEY IN BUILDINGS 

C. L. PENSYL, Bloomsburg, Pa. 

BREEDER OF BLFF PLYMOUTH ROCKS EXCLUSIVELY 

A. 9. Buy fowls to start with. 

A. 10. Because you have the birds to start with, — have 
value for some of your money. Eggs, you run so many chances 
by shipping them. You may not get a good hatch. If you have 
a few birds to begin with you can give more attention to the 
nil get a far better start. The beginner may pay $5. for 
a sitting of 13 eggs, put I hem under a hen and likely have her 
leave the nest and discourage him right in the start, [f he buys 
a trio of birds I consider he won't get discouraged so quick,— 
that was my experience 

A. 11. I would advise the Farmer if ho wishes to im- 
prove bis Sock to buy some good cockerels of either the 

Rocks or Wyandot t es and breed them with his mongrels. Then 
let him select his best every year and cull his breeding stock 

closely. Every second year or so add a couple new breeding 
cockerels. 1 fully believe in this way he can build up a fine 
-i rain for market purposes. 

A. 12. If he has no fancy stock would advise him to buy 
a pen ol pure-bird-, mated for fancy stock, of some good re- 
liable breeder. In a short time if he takes an interest in his 

birds he can have a good Sock. Would advise liirn to advertise 
his stock in some reliable poultry journal. Keep only one breed 
and cull closely every year, lie will BOOH be realizing a fancy 

profit :il ne e 1 1 rdinary fow I. 

A. 13. Buy a pen ol the besl he can afford to buy, mated 
up for exhibition, Be sure that he is dealing with a good 
reliable breeder, one thai will use him all right. If he wishes to 
get right up on top with ins bird-, would advise him to buy 

i winning male bird- or winning pen at some large show, 

Then he can advertise young stock bred by or from say New 
York, Host, hi. or Chicago winners. It be is successful in raising 
stock I am sure he will have no trouble in selling same. 

A. 11. I would advise to buy only two birds if he hasn't 
much money — the best be can afford to buy. Cull Ins breeders 
very close each season and use nothing bui the best for breedei 

It careful, in B couple of years, he will have a good fair start 
and can learn a- he goefi along Po ibly he could get a start 
bj buying eggs if he has good luck. 

A, IS. Start with Rocks or Wyandottes nothing but 

the best, and learn as be grows in the business. Read some 

good reliable poultry journal and then use his own ideas along 
with some of the others. The birds he can't sell for fancy he 

can readily sell for market poultry. Especially for a beginner 
I would advise to go a little slow at. first unless he has lots of 
money, then would advise him to employ some good experi- 
enced man. 

A. 111. Buy the best stock Hocks and Wyandottes his 
money will afford. Don't put too much money in buildings: 
Have them built for warmth but not to look at. After business 
gets to paying put on the finishing touches. Too many get a 
lot of money tied up in buildings when their means are limited, 
where they should Use it for birds to start with. A good start 
is the whole tiling. 

A. 17. Buff Plymouth Rocks. 

A. 18. Because I have tried a great many other breeds 
and found none that I have as much satisfaction in as in the 
Buff Rocks. They have good size, are easily raised. Breed 
pretty true to type and color if mated properly, and are fine 



table fowls. Their beautiful shade of golden buff color is always 
noticed by the fancier at first sight in breeding yard or show 
room. Single birds of this breed have sold as high as several 
hundred dollars each, and I always find sale for all I can raise 
at good fancy prices. 

A: 19. White or Buff Rocks or White Wyandottes would 
be my choice. 

A. 20. Because they have the size, nice yellow legs and 
skin, and are free from dark pin feathers, which makes them 
very salable. Their meat is juicy and fine flavored. 

-.4. 21. Rocks and Wyandottes. 

A. 22. Because they have the size for market fowls and 
then for fancy. They bring really the highest prices at the big 
shows. 



BREED FROM GOOD LAYERS 

TRAP NESTS ADVISED— DON'T PAY TO BREED 
POOR EGG PRODUCERS— PURE-BREDS BEST 

HARMON BRADSHAW, Lebanon, Indiana 

SINGLE COMB WHITE LEGHORN SPECIALIST 

.1. 9. Stock by all means, if only a trio. 

A. 10. First: Because you can see just what you have 
to breed from and will know, in a measure, what the offspring 
will be. 

Second: Because you can raise more good birds from a 
good trio than from six sittings of the best eggs you could buy. 

A. 11. Would advise him to purchase a few first class 
birds and pen to themselves, using trap nests. Get a few birds 
to. in a hen that you know is a good layer and build your 




AN ENGLISH FATTENING SHED 

flock from them. It does not pay to breed from a poor egg pro- 
ducer even though she is a blue ribbon winner. 

A. 12. .Same as No. 1 1. Also you can raise prize winners 
as well as market fowls with no more expense, if you start right. 
There are always market fowls among the pure-breds. 

A. 13. Start with two small pens (not to exceed six 
females and a male) and learn by experience how to breed and 
care for them. Use trap nests so you will know which hen 
produced the winner and which hen is the good layer. 

A. 14. Spend what he can for birds and start as in 
answer No. 13. 

A. 15. Same as No. 13 unless he employs a man with 
experience to help him. 

A. 16. Same as Nos. 13 and 14. 



34 



STARTING IN THE BUSINESS 



A. 17. Single-Comb White Leghorns. 

A. 18. Because they are my fancy and are beautiful. 

A. 19. Single-Comb White Leghorns. 

A. 20. First: Because they are the best egg producers 
known. If this were not true the largest egg farms in the 
country would not have them. 

Second: There is more profit in eggs for the market than 
poultry. You can produce fifty pounds of eggs cheaper than 
fifty pounds of poultry. The eggs will bring you in the most 
money. 

Third: They eat about half as much as the larger breeds. 

THEY SERVE AS PATTERNS 

IF YOU START WITH FOWLS THEY SHOW YOU 
WHAT GOOD BIRDS SHOULD BE— GET THE BEST 

MRS. CHARLES JONES, Paw Paw, 111. 

BREEDER OF BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS: BUFF COCHINS 
AND GOLDEN BRONZE TURKEYS 

A. 9. I would buy fowls. 

A. 10. If you buy fowls it gives you birds of the best 
breeding, if you buy of a reliable breeder. ' Buy trios or breed- 
ing pens and have them mated up for best results. They serve 
as patterns and show you what a good bird should be. 

A. 11. I would buy a trio and raise what good birds I 
could and use my cockerels with my mongrels until I could 
raise enough pure-bred fowls from my yards of good stock. 
Sell off all the mongrels, as there is much more satisfaction in 
raising good stock than mongrels. 

.4. 12. Buy the best of the variety that suits him best. 

A. 13. I would buy the very best money would buy and 
always breed in line, as fine breeding is the only way to establish 
a strain and the only way to keep your birds at the top. 

A. 14. Buy eggs but buy from the most reliable breeders 
and from an established line of the best breeding. 

A. 15. I would buy large breeding pens of the kind or 
kinds that I wanted to breed from. 

A. 16. I think one or two breeding pens and some eggs 
of the same lines of breeding. 

A. 17. Barred Plymouth Rocks and Buff Cochins. 

A. IS. Because they are by all means the most popular 
fowl today for the fancy as well as good utility fowls. Buff 
Cochins are good layers, quiet and natural pets, besides showing 
a great deal of intelligence. They are my favorites. 

A. 19. Plymouth Rocks. 

A. 20. Good layers, quick growth, heavy weights, great 
foragers. 



FOR FARMER AND FANCIER 



A. 11. The farmer should select as near as possible 
females of blocky, compact shape, of moderate size, low on legs 
full in breast and short at back, without feathered shanks and 
dark pin feathers. To these would mate a pure-bred male, 
white in plumage and of the Wyandotte type, low down, short, 
full and round, and not too heavy. The progeny should be 
salable at any age at paying prices. The farmer ordinarily 
considers height as size, i. e., length of leg. We believe his 
greatest mistake in grading up a mongrel flock is due to this 
misconception. 

A. 12. He should improve his mongrel stock by intro- 
ducing pure-bred males and breeding to a blocky type without 
trying to increase size too rapidly, making plumpness the prime 
factor. He should also start with a pair, trio or pen of pure- 
bred stock and work up to an understanding of their good and 
bad points by degrees; perfecting them as he progresses and 
discarding the graded stock as the pure-breds increase to take 
their place. 

A. 13. a. For early enthusiasm and quick action, buy 
show birds that can win and supplement these purchases from 
time to time as the necessity demands. 

b. Should buy two pairs mated for sex; cock and pullet 
and cockerel and hen, or he can increase the females to four in 
each pen provided they are full or half sisters. They should be 
as nearly as possible of standard shape and color (shape to take 
precedence) of unquestioned fine breeding and the result of six 
or more consecutive matings. They should thenceforth be bred 
in line. 

A. 14. Would put all my allotted funds for stock into 
the best pair of line bred birds the money would buy. Would 
prefer cockerel and pullet of ample size and development, and 
would continue to breed them in line. Would choose the young 
stock because of its continued usefulness only. 

A. 17. White Wyandottes. 

A. IS. Because they are decidely the most popular breed 
or variety now before the public. Because no one as yet has 
mastered uniformity of type, general characteristics nor per- 
manently fixed color in entire strains, and finally, because there 
is a gold mine in sight for the one who does. 

A. 19. White Wyandottes. 

A. 20. Because they are hardy, thrift}-, early developers 
of just the right size and shape to bring the highest market 
price alive or dressed at any age. Because they are crowding 
the so-called egg machines for first place, and finally because 
in dressing, the offal is small, and their feathers, because of color 
and texture, cover in value the cost of dressing, leaving larger 
profits. 

.4. 21. White Wyandottes. 

.4. 22. Because utility and fancy are known and recog- 
nized in this variety to a much greater extent than in any other 
breed or variety with which I am conversant and in consequence 
their sale is more easily effected at larger gains. 



PRACTICAL ADVICE FOR BEGINNERS- 
START WITH GOOD STOCK— ENCOUR- 
AGES ENTHUSIASM AND QUICK RESULTS 

OTTO O. WILD, Benton Harbor, Michigan 

SPECIALTY BREEDER OF WHITE WYANDOTTES 

A. 9. I should buy fowls. 

A. 10. Fowls give you the finished product to study 
while you are learning the breed or variety, and you can watch 
development of the chick to maturity from the eggs the fowls 
themselves produce. There are few beginners who become 
totally discouraged the first season when fowls are the basis of 
their start. 



STOCK SUREST START 

YOU GET RETURNS ONE YEAR SOONER— FAR- 
MER SHOULD SEEK PURE-BREDS— EARLY 
MATURITY, GOOD SIZE AND EASY FEEDERS 

MRS. H. W. HAND. White Hall. 111. 

WHITE WYANDOTTE SPECIALIST 

.4. 9. The surest, quickest, and most satisfactory way 
is to purchase a trio or pen of good birds. 

.4. 10. I should prefer to begin with a few good birds 
rather than eggs, because you get returns one year sooner. 



35 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



Birds are more easily and safely transported than eggs, the 
disappointments are fewer and the cultivation of the eye for 
the true type begins at once. 

A. 11. He should head his flock with pure-bred cockerels 
of one of the best market varieties, that is, the close-built, 
round or plump varieties. The farmer should think of early 
maturity, good size, and easy feeders. The White Wyandottes 
answer all these requirements. 

A. 12. He should buy either eggs from a reliable breeder, 
or a pen of fowls properly mated, and from the offspring sell all 
culls and inferior cockerels for market, retaining inferior pullets 
for laying purposes, and using his select birds to breed from 
for liimself and his customers. 

A. 13. Purchase a pen of birds conforming as nearly to 
the Standard as possible. Buy them of some reliable breeder 
who has a well established strain, that shows the evidence of 
careful, continuous breeding to correct type and color. Invest 
your money in a few fine specimens rather than in a large number 
of inferior ones. Select the variety that will give you size, 
plumpness, eggs, early maturity, and the variety that you think 
will give you the greatest number of customers. 

.1. 14. I should advise him to go slow. Adopt one 
variety only, begin on a small scale, and as his experience grows, 
and his business increases, invest the profits in more equipment 
and better stock. A trio of good birds in one pen, carefully 
handled, is more profitable than several pens of inferior stock. 

A. 17. I should select but one variety, and that would 
be the White Wyandottes. 

A. 18. They are an all purpose fowl. They are of good 
size, are plump, and in marketable condition at all ages after 
six weeks. They are easy keepers, producing more pounds on 
less feed than any other variety. They are good rangers, though 
not bad flyers, and are heavy producers of large brown eggs, 
both winter and summer. They are the best and gentlest of 
mothers, and are hardy and vigorous. The eggs are sought by 
the broiler plants, the chicks by the marketmen, and the exhibi- 
tion specimens by the greatest number of fanciers, of any variety 
of the day. Withal they arc the most popular, the most profit- 
able and the most beautiful of all chicken kind. 



BETTER FLOCK FROM STOCK 

ON SMALL SCALE START WITH 
STOCK; ON LARGE SCALE BUY EGGS 

R. H. CRANDALL, Worth, Mich. 

BREEDER OF SINGLE AND ROSE COMB WHITE AND BROWN LEGHORNS: 

WHITE WYANDOTTES. PEKIN DUCKS, TOULOUSE 

GEESE AND BRONZE TURKEYS 

A. 9. If starting on a small scale I would buy stock; 
large scale, good eggs. 

A. 10. On a small scale you could raise a better flock 
from good stock than from eggs bought. Eggs are much the 
cheaper way to make a start on a large scale, as 3 r ou can get a 
lot of stock out in a few weeks in the spring. 

A. 11. I would advise him to buy good pure-bred White 
Wyandotte cockerels, which will better both his egg production 
ami market stock. In my experience the White Wyandottes 
make the best market bird of any breed and are the nearest to 
a general purpose fowl. 

.4. 12. Breed Leghorns, as they are a source of profit 
from the time the pullets are large enough to lay until you have 
found sale for them. 

.4. 14. Breed Leghorns, because they are the greatest 
egg producers if you get stock that has been bred with these 



points in view. They will lay more eggs for amount of feed con- 
sumed than any other known breed and there is a large demand 
for them as egg producers and breeders at from $1. up. 

A. 15. Leghorns for fancy and eggs. White Wyandottes 
for market with Pekin ducks also, if you are near some good 
market. 

A. 19. White Wyandottes. 

A. 20. They have yellow flesh and legs with white plu- 
mage and no dark pin feathers to mar the appearance of dressed 
birds, always round and plump from a broiler to maturity. 
Mature early and are not long-bodied and leggy like the Rocks. 



FOWLS FIRST, THEN EGGS 

FOWLS MOST ECONOMICAL PURCHASE, 
BUT IT PAYS NO BUY EGGS— WORK 
AND WAIT, SUCCESSS WILL COME 

W. W. KULP, Pottstown, Pa. 

BREEDER OF SINGLE AND ROSE CQMB WHITE AND BROWN LEGHORNS: 

WHITE WYANDOTTES; BUFF AND BARRED ROCKS 

AND PEKIN DUCKS 

A. 9. I would buy both fowls and eggs. Fowls first 
then eggs. 

A. 10. I would buy fowls because you can produce more 
eggs cheaper than you can buy them for the same amount in- 
vested. I would buy some eggs too, for you can get eggs of 
fowls that breeders will not sell, thereby getting a line of blood 
that will be of value in your breeding operations. I have 
bought eggs for twenty years and it has paid me. 

A. 11. I would buy eggs of the breed I wished to have. 
Keep all the best males two years. Then buy eggs again of a 
strain that would suit well with that bought first. This way he 
will soon have them much like the standard-bred stock he is 
using. But never keep one of the half or three-quarter bloods 
for they will not. produce uniform quality of stock like the pure 
bloods. Or cockerels can be bought for their vigor, size and 
shape. Either plan will work, only if eggs are bought don't 
expect to raise five nice cockerels from each sitting. If you get 
two nice cockerels from a sitting you will have them at a low 
price. 

A. 12. To sell fancy poultry, absolutely pure eggs or 
stock must be bred. I would buy some eggs and raise chicks. 
If I did not have enough in the fall I would purchase females 
and fill the pens. Select a breed you like and stick to it, do 
not change unless you are sure you have made a mistake. Take 
the advice of a poultryman of years of experience. He knows 
and also can tell you where you are planning to do too much 
and what obstacles you will be likely to strike. 

A. 13. Let him visit the breeder he wishes to buy of and 
pay him for as good as he will spare, and pay him for some of 
his knowledge too. He knows and can help you. I have known 
men go to a place and want the very best at a low value. When 
they could not be bought they would pick out other nice looking 
ones that the breeder knew were not what were wanted, yet 
would let them have them to pay for their trying to get the best 
for half their value. 

A. 14. Buy as many and as good as his money will pay 
for, and work and wait for the rest. Buy a few good birds and 
breed them. Build up the business until you are in the other 
class, that is, with much money. It can and is being done all 
the time, but the person must not expect to spend much on him 
or herself during the building-up time. 

A. 15. First learn the business with some one who 
knows how. No other way will work, for no man can get a 



36 



STARTING IN THE BUSINESS 



man to do it all for him; that, is, do all the managing, for if he 
is able he will be doing it for himself. He can have fun if he 
wishes, for he can get men who will about make the expenses 
of the place; but the man who does not know his own business 
had better not try to run it unless for experiment. 

A. 16. Learn it with a good firm. 

A. 17. Leghorns and Wyandottes. 

A. 18. They are thoroughly practical breeds. If you 
have utility breeds you have a big sale for market and you have 
the fancy too, for they are fancy as any breeds. There is no 
breed of the egg-producing class equal to the Leghorns, all things 
considered. The Wyandottes are the best in the world in the 
meat class. 

A. 19. White or Silver Penciled Wyandottes. 

A. 20. I have found them good layers and large enough 
for meat trade, and not so liable to be killed by improper feeding 
as the Rocks. I have had a good many years to study this 
and think I am right. 



means, either with stock or eggs or both. Do not attempt to 
establish a "large business" in too short a time. Meantime 
treat the business as you would any other business, i. e., give it 
your undivided time and attention and use the best business 
judgment. 

A. 17. Buff Plymouth Rocks. 

A. 18. First: As "fancy" poultry, by that I mean exhi- 
bition specimens, there is always a demand at large prices. 

Second: As market poultry there is no breed that can 
surpass them. They can be grown to two or three pounds 
weight as chicks in less time and at less cost, and with less care 
than any variety that I know anything about. As egg producers 
the tests and records will show that they are the equals of any 
breed, with this in their favor they do their heaviest laying 
during the months when eggs bring the highest prices. 



POPULAR BREEDS BEST 



CORRECT MATING NECESSARY 

ANYONE CAN BREED POULTRY BUT EX- 
HIBITION SPECIMENS ARE ANOTHER 
PROPOSITION— EXPERIENCE IS REQUIRED 

F. C. SHEPHERD, Toledo, Ohio. 

BREEDER OF BUFF PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

A. 9. I would buy the best trio or pair of fowls that I 
could afford, also eggs from two or three reliable breeders. 

A. 10. From a trio or pair I could breed a lot sufficient 
to give me a start, but if they had not been mated right the 
whole seasons' work might be lost. If I had chicks from several 
other strains I could select the best from all and re-mate them 
for my second seasons' breeding with more certainty of the re- 
sults. Also by having the blood of several strains I could cross 
them or breed them straight and note results and cull or abandon 
such as did not show improvement, and in this way gradually 
work to buildup a strain of my own. 

A. 11. My advice would be to buy eggs, raise all the 
chicks possible from them. The following season kill all the 
mongrel males he has. Breed that season from the pure-breds, 
males only. By following this plan for two or three seasons 
he will be free of his mongrels and have a flock of pure-breds. 

A. 12. The same as Nos. 9 and 10. Selection of the 
finest to sell for exhibition or breeding purposes, after selecting 
his own breeders. Sell the culls or those not needed as market 
poultry. 

A. 13. Buy the best trio or pen that it is possible to get, 
properly mated for breeding exhibition specimens. Be content 
to breed a limited number and to only keep a limited number 
until the business is learned. Anybody can breed poultry, but 
breeding exhibition specimens is another proposition. You can- 
not teach anyone how to breed exhibition specimens by simply 
telling them. You might as well try to teach a boy to swim 
by telling him how you do it; throw him in where it is over his 
head a few times and he will learn himself. The beginner must 
first have his breeding birds properly mated and then breed and 
keep only a limited number until he learns, not what some one 
tells him, but all the little "ifs, ans, ins and outs" that only come 
with practice and experience. 

A. 14. Buy eggs from the most reliable breeders and get 
the best you can afford. 

A. 15. Employ a competent man and let him do the 
managing. 

A. 16. Begin in a small moderate way according to the 



GET SOLID FOUNDATION STOCK— START 
WITH ONE BREED AND GROW UP WITH IT 

AUGUST D. ARNOLD, Dillsburg, Pa. 

COLUMBIAN WYANDOTTE SPECIALIST 

A. 9. Both. 

A. 10. Both are good to start with. If I had plenty of 
money I would buy the best pen of fowls I could get, regardless 
of price, in fact, would get a number of pens and get a good 
start as quickly as possible. If limited in means would then buy 
eggs from an honest breeder, but never from a man who sells 
eggs at SI. per sitting, for no man can sell good eggs at such 
prices, unless his object is to benefit humanity at his own ex- 
pense. Neither would I buy from a man who breeds sixty 
varieties of fowls. 

A. 11. I would advise him to buy pure-bred males and 
cross on the mongrels. We have seen common dunghills crossed 
in this way with the best results, both as to looks of the flock 
and as to improvement for market and in laying qualities. 

A. 12. Let him start with a variety that is a well known 
all purpose fowl. Cull well, and sell for market each year such 
as are inferior in fancy points. Keep only the best males. 
Farmers are the only ones who can sell eggs for SI. per 15, 
having a number of males running with the whole flock and not 
pretending to breed for fancy points. 

A. 13. Get a variety that has a solid foundation as to 
their make up. A general purpose fowl that is a pretty fowl 
and useful both as to market and the fancy. A new breed or 
variety of fowls for a beginner is better than an old breed. He 
starts in with the new breed and grows up with it, and from the 
start stands a good chance to make sales. If he takes up an 
old variety he is in a crowd of hundreds and maybe thousands, 
he stands only one chance in a thousand to make a sale and is 
discouraged and goes out. In the selection of a new breed of 
fowls he must use good judgment, for most of the new breeds 
and varieties have not a solid foundation and they fall by the way. 

-■1. 14. Get a few sittings of eggs from a specialist of 
known reputation. Choose a variety of fowls that you fancy. 
Select the best each season. When having a good start in 
numbers place a small ad in a poultry paper, then keep the object 
in view to do as you wish to be done by. Show at a county 
fair, but never till you have something good to show. 

A. 15. Take up a popular variety or breed that has been 
made so by its own merits. Buy stock and eggs from the best 
breeders, no matter about the price. Get the best anyway. 
Become a specialist and give all your time and attention to one 
breed. Go to some successful breeder and get all the pointers 

37 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



you can. Use your poorest quality fowls and chicks for market. 

I 16. 1 ake up a tried variety, one that has the qualities 

both for the fancy and market side. Build cheap houses but 

on righl plans, a few at a time; add as your means will permit 

your trade demands. Cull hard ami market all inferior 

birds, keeping tin- hest for the fancy. Don't think at the start 

i, an easy way to gel rich quick, for you will change your 

mind; il takes work and lots of it. 

1 . 17. Columbian \\ yandol tes. 

\ is. Because they are the combination of the best and 
in. i-i useful oi the Asiatics on the one hand, and on the other 
of tli«' White Wyandottes, the most popular fowl in the world 
This combination for market and the fancy gives as near perfec- 
li.m in an all purpose fowl as we have yet found. For hardiness, 

quick growing and laying, they are all that can he expected; 

for beauty, they have uo equals. Their popularity is growing 

i, a pace as bas never been experienced by any fowl. 

.1. 19. Columbian Wyandotte* 

A. 20. Because they have all the flood qualities required 
for market poultry. 

.1 . 21. Columbian \\ j andol te 

.1. 22. Because 1 do nol think I could get anything 
Letter for the purpose. 



SURE WAY TO START RIGHT 

BUY BOTH STOCK AND 
EGGS THE BEST OBTAINABLE 

E. B. THOMPSON, Amenia, N. Y. 

BREEDER OF BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS EXCLUSIVELY 

.4. 9. I would buy both eggs and birds. 

.1. 10. Buying both eggs and stock would be a sure way 
to get a fine start. I could raise a lot of birds from the stock I 
bought and in addition to these raise some birds from the eggs. 
These eggs would be from the best birds the breeder had. Birds 
that he would not sell. You will see that having some chicks 
from such eggs as these and having also some fine stock to breed 
from, the beginner is in splendid shape for successful breeding. 

.4. 11. I would advise buying some Barred Plymouth 
Rock cockerels, to cross with his mongrel hens. 

A. 12. I would advise breeding pure bred Barred Ply- 
mouth Rocks. The best of these the farmer could sell for breed- 
ing purposes and the others for market purposes. 

.4. 13. I would recommend buying the finest and best 



SMALL OR LARGE SCALE PLANTS 

START WITH FOWLS AND EGGS UNLESS MEANS 
\K1 LIMITED, THEN CHOOSE FOWLS ALONE 

A. OBERNDORE, Centralia, Kans. 

BREEDER "> SINOLI COMB WHITS LEGHORNS AND 

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

,1 9. Fowl it "ii a large scale. Fowls only 

il i small scale, 

.1. pi. [f on a large scale i1 would enable me to get differ- 
ent strains and study and decide upon the best points. It on a 
-mall scale the same can be done from the start to a more limited 
extent. 

.1. II. Gel pine 1. ie,l cockerels rf the larger breeds and 

at the same time a pen of one of the larger breed-, and keep them 

ie until he lias replaced the mongrels by pure-bred stock. 

.1. 12. Gel a pen oi fancy poultrj and some fancy eggs 

and breed and raise them m separate pen. 

.1. 13. Procure exhibition birds prize winners only. 
I 1 I. Buy Single-Comb White Leghorn eggs from reli- 
able breeder-. 

.1. 15. Start with pens and eggE "I layers, egg producers, 
such as Single-Comb White Leghorns and fleshy birds like 

Barred Plymouth Rocks. 

.1 . Hi. Same as No. 15. 

.1. 17. Single-('<imb White leghorns and Barred Ply- 
mouth Rocks. 

.1. IS. Single-Comb White Leghorns are the best egg 
producers and require a moderate amount of feed, are showy 
and clean looking. Barred Plymouth Hocks are a popular 
breed and good sellers as "springs." 

.4. 1!». For broilers Single-Comb White Leghorns, for 
roasters or capons Barred Plymouth Hocks. 

.4. 20. Single-Comb White Leghorns can be made fit 
for Broilers in less time and with less feed than others. For 
roasters and capons I prefer Barred Plymouth Rocks because 
they have yellow skin and plump bodies. 

.1. 21. Single-Comb White Leghorns and Barred Ply- 
mouth Rocks. 

.4. 22. They are attractive, egg producers and good 
sellers. 




A SHED-ROOF COLONY HOUSE 

birds to be obtained, and be sure they are properly mated. 
The best birds will not breed unless mated right and too few 
breeders seem to be experts in mating. In addition to buying 
the best birds I would recommend buying some eggs for hatch- 
ing from the finest matings. I would buy at least two or three 
pens of birds and several sittings of eggs; the best to be had 
at any cosl . 

.4. 14. I would recommend buying one or two trios or 
pens as good as 1 could afford and a few eggs from the best. 

.4. 15. Buy several pens of the very finest birds. Supple- 
ment this with several hundred eggs — this for the fancy breeding. 

A. 10. Begin with a few fine birds for fancy breeding 
and with a few ordinary birds for market breeding, and enlarge 
the flocks as capital will permit. 

.4. 17. Barred Plymouth Rocks. 

.4. IS. This breed is the most popular and therefore in 
most demand and greatest money maker. 

.4. 19. Barred Plymouth Rocks. 

A. 20. I understand that market poultrymen breed them 
very largely. 

.4. 21 

A. 22 



Barred Plymouth Rocks. 

On account of their popularity for both fancy and 



market breeding. 



38 



STARTING IN THE BUSINESS 



STUDY THE POULTRY PAPERS 

GO SLOW— LEARN FIRST HOW TO CARE 
FOR AND MATE BIRDS — ATTEND 
SHOWS AND STUDY THE STANDARD 

MRS. TILLA LEACH, Cheneyville, 111. 

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCK SPECIALIST 

.4. 9. If I had the money to buy two trios of first class 
birds, would do so, also buy eggs from some breeder; if short of 
money would buy eggs only. 

A. 10. The fowls would give me a good start the first 
year, while from the eggs I might get one or two specimens better 
than I could buy. Would need two trios because I am a firm 
believer in "double mating." 

A. 11. Buy one or two hundred incubator eggs from some 
breeder who has high grade market poultry, mark the chicks and 
use them for next year's breeders. Of course I mean to buy eggs 
from pure-bred stock. I do not believe in trying to grade up 
mongrels. 

A. 12. Buy eggs, or a trio, from a breeder of high class 
exhibition stock, whose birds are also good layers and strong, 
vigorous market poultry. 

A. 13. As in this case expense need not be considered, 
I would buy a trio of the best from a reliable breeder, study the 
Standard and poultry papers during the breeding season, and 
secure the best advice and assistance possible when culling out 
and remating for another season. Such a beginner should attend 
one or more poultry shows during each season, taking some of 
his birds with him and, if possible, watching the judge score 
them, as in that way much can be learned. 

A. 14. Buy eggs instead of stock, but be sure they are 
from a good exhibition line. Attend the shows, study the 
Standard, and "make haste slowly," learning first, how to care 
for the birds properly and to mate them, before investing much 
money. 

A. 15. Hire a competent manager and follow his advice 
for the first one or two years. 

A. 16. Buy incubator eggs from a breeder of choice exhi- 
bition stock that is strong and vigorous, not inbred too closely. 
Learn the market side of the business first, gradually working 
into the fancy as knowledge increases. 

.4. 17. Barred Rocks. 

A. 18. Because I like them best. It is difficult to breed 
choice specimens, consequently more credit is due to the breeder 
who succeeds in raising, not buying, good ones. Also, they are 
more popular, take the United States over, than any other vari- 
ety, and there is more demand for good breeding stock. 

-4. 19. Do not know; cannot imagine myself raising 
poultry for market only. 



TO PROCEED INTELLIGENTLY 

STUDY THE BREED AND THE 
INDIVIDUALS THE FIRST YEAR 

BRADLEY BROS., Lee, Mass. 

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCK SPECIALISTS 

A. 9. Both. 

.4. 10. To have as many opportunities as possible from 
which to obtain the best. 

.4. 11. Use pure-bred males, selecting birds that show 
quick maturity and proper body form, and of a strain in which 
these characteristics have been prominent for years. 



A. 12. Perhaps a trio and their eggs in addition — limited 
number. 

A. 13. Obtain the best birds he can buy and a limited 
number of the best eggs to be had. The most choice specimens 
produce results that money cannot, and some specimens are 
almost priceless for breeding. In a variety requiring two pens, 
the purchase should comprise perhaps a quartette of each. 

A. 14. Get a choice breeding trio and then make a care- 
ful and discreet purchase of eggs, always of winning blood. 
Study the breed and the individuals as he finds them the first 
year, and so be better able to proceed intelligently. 

^4. 15. Birds at medium prices but of very best blood, 
regarding of course the type most needed for market in his local 
markets. 

A. 16. Purchase small number of high grade and others 
of medium grade fancy stock selected for market type also. 
Also purchase eggs at moderate prices of strains exhibiting the 
characteristics most desired for the markets. 

A. 17. Barred Plymouth Rocks. 

A. 18. Our success with them. One of the most popular 
breeds for all — from the farmer, who buys one male a year, and 
the market poultryman, to the man of means who has a hobby 
to be gratified in fancy poultry. They are adapted to needs of 
all. They are utility and fancy birds combined. If you observe 
in the shows, if anywhere more than others, 'tis around the 
Barred Plymouth Rocks one finds often the most enthusiastic 
crowd. 

A. 19. Barred or White Rocks, Rhode Island Reds. 
Most experience with Barred Rocks, not much with others. 

.4. 20. Stamina, form, skin, quick growth of these birds. 
Would select individuals with reference to requirements. 

A. 21. Barred Plymouth Rocks. 

A. 22. Experience and observation. 



FROM A FARMER'S VIEWPOINT 

DAY IS PAST FOR ANYTHING BUT PURE-BREDS 
FOR THE UP-TO-DATE FARMER KEEP THEM PURE 

H. TIBBETS, Neponset, 111. 

BREEDER OF BARRED PLY'MOUTH ROCKS 

.4. 9. I would buy fowls. 

.4. 10. By buying a trio or breeding pen of some good 
reliable breeder you get an idea of how they mate their birds to 
produce choice specimens; it teaches the beginner more than if 
he buys eggs. 

.4. 11. I W'Ould advise a farmer who wishes to improve 
his flock to buy some good pure-bred cockerels; by that means 
his flock will improve each year. The day is past for anything 
but the very best bred stock of any kind for the farmer to keep. 
I can answer from a farmer's standpoint. 

.4. 12. I would advise the farmer who wishes to raise 
poultry for the fancy as well as for market to keep nothing but 
the very best of stock; keep them pure, do imi cross them. 

.4. 13. For the beginner with ample funds buy the very 
best stock that he can get from some breeder who lias had 
plenty of experience and knows how to mate and breed his own 
birds. Then let him attend the shows and look over the speci- 
mens there. Subscribe for some good reliable poultry journal. 
Then by careful study and perseverance he ought to succeed. 

.4. 17. Barred Plymouth Rocks. 

.4. IS. As they are bred more than any other variety 
there are more buyers for them. They combine as many good 
points as any variety, as follows: Dress well at any age, are 
good layers, good mothers, and have good size. 



39 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



THE BEST ARE CHEAPEST 

CHEAPER IN THE END TO START WITH 
THE BEST AND BUILD UP SLOWLY— 
BREED FOR FURTHER IMPROVEMENT 

ROSEDALE POULTRY FARM CO., 
Greenwood, Mass. 

BREEDERS OF WHITE WYANDOTTES EXCLUSIVELY 

A. 9. Fowls, from a first class breeder, supplemented 
by eggs from same strain. 

A. 10. To secure benefit of experience of the breeder, and 
uniformity of stock. 

A. 11. Purchase of males regardless of price from a first 
class breeder, using no other males. Add some females from 
the same strain, gradually weeding out all birds which do not 
show the benefit of the crossing. 

A. 12. Purchase best birds obtainable from breeder who 
has made a specialty of exhibition birds with good market 
qualities also. 

A. 13. Get the best, regardless of price, and faithfully 
breed for further improvement. 

A. 14. Cheaper in the end to start with the very best, 
and build up slowly. 

A. 15. Allow a well-established breeder to select the nec- 
essary stock, and thus secure at once what would otherwise re- 
quire years of experiment and disappointment. 

A. l(i. Same as Xos. 12 and 1 I. 

A. 17. White Wyandottee. 

A. 18. Because when given proper treatment they quick- 
ly slum improvement and thus encourage further effort on the 

Same line. The competition is so keen that all breeders arc 
obliged to devote their utmost energy to their work, as neglect 
of any detail is fatal to the highest results. 
I A. 19. w bite w yandol b 

.1. 20. They are about the correct size to meet market 
requirements. They make a very pretty showing with their 
yellow skin legs and plump, attractive bodies. Pin feathers do 
not show. 



BUY MATED BIRDS 

A FINE PEN WILL (JIVE A GOOD 
START— SHOW AND ATTEND THE 
SHOWS— "STANDARD" NECESSARY 

GEORGE H. BIE, Racine, Wis. 

BREEDER OF BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS EXCLUSIVELY 

A. 9. I would buy fowls. 

A. 10. I could buy a first class male for breeding from 
S20. to $25., mated correctly with a pen of ten females that I 
would pay $100. for from a good reliable breeder. From this 
pen I could get at least 500 eggs in the hatching season. I 
could not buy that number of eggs from the same breeder much 
less than I paid for my pen of birds, and I would have my pen of 
birds for another season. 

A. 11. I would buy cockerels, either Barred Plymouth 
Rocks or Wyandottes — birds that can be bought from $2. to 
$3. each from some good breeder. Those would not be considered 
real fine birds but would be all right for the purpose. Put in 
one cockerel for every twelve to fifteen females in the flock. 
If I was satisfied with results from them I would mate those 
same males back on their own pullets the next season. Get 
new males the following season. 



A. 13. Buy fine pen of birds from a good breeder and have 
him mate them. He will do much better to buy mated birds 
for the first year or two than to depend on his own judgment for 
mating. In the meantime get all the good reading matter he 
can obtain on his chosen variety. Take one or more good 
poultry journals. Get a Standard of Perfection. Send some of 
his best birds to the shows and go there himself. If his birds 
do not win a prize he will profit by it as he will find out their 
weak points. He must be willing to live and learn. 

A. 17. Barred Plymouth Rocks. 

A. 18. I have bred them for eighteen years. I bred 
several other varieties for twelve years and then dropped them 
all but the Barred Rocks. I have found them the best all round 
purpose fowl that I have had anything to do with. There is 
no variety of fancy poultry that receives more attention at our 
shows. There is always a ready sale for all the good ones and 
the culls will bring the highest market price. 

A. 19. Barred Plymouth Rocks. 

A. 20. They are as hardy as any fowl living and are 
good winter layers. The young birds are fit for market at any 
time after ten weeks old and bring the highest market price. 



ENTIRE YEAR GAINED 

START WITH FOWLS— SAVES A YEAR IF WELL 
MATED STOCK IS BOUGHT— BUY THE BEST 

W. D. HOLTERMAN, Fort Wayne, Ind. 

SPECIALTY BREEDER OF BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

.1. 9. If I had sufficient means to buy the very best I 
would buy a few fowls, otherwise the best eggs that money can 
obi ain. 

A. 10. I should prefer fowls because in the first place it 
practically means the savins; or gain of an entire year in the life 
of a fancier, and if he buys a correctly mated pen of the best 
out of a true fancier's yards, lie gets a practical working know- 
ledge of how birds should be properly mated for breeding, 
particularly if he studies the specimens sent him very closely. 
This, one is naturally apt to do the first year. Every fancier 
will concede that the one knowledge absolutely necessary for 
success is — proper mating. Therefore, to the beginning fancier 
I would say: Buy birds — buy the best. 

A. 13. To such a one I would say, invest $50. to $200. 
in a pair or trio of line-bred birds, that have been bred in line 
for years for that one purpose — exhibition birds or show birds. 
He should be satisfied with nothing else but the very choicest 
specimens to be had from any one breeder. These birds should 
be all of the same blood lines (related). Of his young stock 
from this pair or trio he should next season select a few (remem- 
ber, however, only a few) of the most vigorous and be5;t pullets 
and mate these back to their sire. Of his cockerels he should 
only keep one — the best one — to mate back to the hen or hens 
he purchased. The next season he should continue breeding 
along these fines — breeding as close as possible without impairing 
the vigor. Whenever he wishes to buy he should only buy 
from the breeder from whom he made his original purchase. 
Thus will he establish a line of showbirds. 

A. 14. Let this man write to the most reliable breeders 
and fanciers of the variety he desires to keep, and obtain from 
them prices of eggs from their most select specimens. Since the 
advent of the trap nest every fancier can easily identify the eggs 
from each individual female in his breeding yards. Some fanci- 
ers refuse to make such a quotation but I would rather pay $2. 
per egg for such eggs than eggs from the regular pens at $5. 
per sitting. 



40 



STARTING IN THE BUSINESS 



A. 15. This man could well afford to buy both stock 
and eggs. For his exhibition poultry, however, I should advise 
him by all means to start with stock — the best he can obtain. 
He should work the market poultry end of the business vigor- 
ously from the beginning and should take his time to establish 
himself firmly in the fancy business. If he does this thoroughly, 
the fancy business will bring in more money in the end than the 
market poultry. 

A. 16. Let him do as above suggested with this differ- 
ence, that the first year or two he combine either gardening or 
small fruit raising with the poultry business, so that he will have 
sufficient funds to carry him through to success. 

A. 17. Barred Plymouth Rocks. 

A. 18. Because in the first place they are probably the 
most difficult of all varieties to breed true to their standard 
requirements and this, therefore, opens a wide field for the 
fancier who succeeds in breeding the choicest. That this is true 
is shown by the average high prices paid for fancy Barred Ply- 
mouth Rocks. Undoubtedly the average price paid for birds of 
this variety is higher than that paid for any others. They also 
form the center of attraction in the showroom. They are not 
so nervous and flighty as some of the smaller breeds nor so 
heavy and clumsy as some of the larger. They form a happy 
medium in their character. 



BUY A FARM 

GOOD GRAVEL SOIL BEST— GET BEST 
STOCK AND EGGS YOU CAN AF- 
FORD—BUILD INEXPENSIVE HOUSES 

A. B. TODD, Vermilion, Ohio. 

SINGLE COMB WHITE LEGHORN SPECIALIST 

A. 9. I would buy the finest eggs that money could buy 
from two line-bred strains, and breed from birds obtained from 
them, and get a strain of my own. 

A. 10. My reasons for so doing are, I could get a better 
grade of stock after once hatched and raised than I could get 
for five times what the finest eggs would cost. 

A. 11. The quickest and best way for a farmer to improve 
his flock of mongrels is to buy the best cock or cockerel he can 
afford and breed from him, and add new blood every year in 
this way, or buy good eggs and hatch his own breeding cockerels. 

A. 12. If he wished to start at once I would advise him 
to buy a trio or pen of the best stock he could afford. 

A. 13. Buy a place of 10 or 20 acres of good gravel soil, 
and buy a few choice birds, say 15 to 25 fowls of a strain that 
has been line-bred for years. Start on a small scale and learn 
how to breed exhibition specimens, and gradually work bis 
way up. 

A. 14. Lease a place of 5, 10 or 20 acres of good gravel 
soil for three, five or ten years, and build temporary poultry 
houses costing not to exceed $1. per fowl. Buy a good grade of 
eggs from two line-bred strains of fowls and start a strain of his 
own. 

A. 15. Buy a place of 20 to 25 acres of good gravel soil 
near a good market, and buy the best stock and eggs that he can 
afford. Build poultry houses costing not to exceed $1. per head. 
Start in gradually and add to the flock each season as the busi- 
ness increases. Be a good advertiser in the leading poultry 
journals. 

.4. 16. Buy a farm-of 20 to 50 acres of good gravel soil, 
if not, lease a farm of 20 to 50 acres for three, five or ten years, 
and build houses costing not to exceed SI. per head. Start with 
as good pure-bred stock and eggs as he can afford. Continue 
as advised in No. 15. 



A. 17. Single-Comb White Leghorns. 

A. 18. First: They are the most showy and finest exhi- 
bition fowls in existence. Second: As great layers of pure 
white eggs they are second to none. Third: They are one of 
the hardiest varieties and are easiest to raise of any breed. 

A. 19. The Columbian Wyandottes. 

A. 20. They are next to the Leghorn in hardiness, and 
in their quick growth, for an excellent table fowl they have no 
superior. 

A. 21. Columbian Wyandottes or Barred Plymouth 
Rocks. 

A. 22. There is a good demand for either breed as a fancy 
fowl, and for market neither can be excelled. 



BEGIN SMALL AND GROW 

NO MAN EVER MADE A SUCCESS AT THE 
START WITH A BUSINESS HE HAD NO 
KNOWLEDGE OF— YOU MUST LEARN 

O. E. SKINNER, Columbus, Kansas. 

BREEDER OF BUFF PLYMOUTH ROCKS; BUFF AND 
PARTRIDGE COCHINS 

A. 9. Eggs. 

A. 10. From eggs hatched I could judge of the breeder's 
stock as a value to start a flock. If they would not reasonably 
reproduce, should discard them as a flock foundation. 

A. 11. Barred Rock males. From the fact that Barred 
Rock blood immediately takes effect in both color and better 
size. Besides my long observation is that Barred Rocks are the 
ideal market fowl — both dead and alive. 

A. 12. My experience has been largely along this line and 
I have used Barred Rocks for this reason. At the age of broilers 
you can almost invariably pick out your culls if any, and obtain 
as much for them at this young age and thus save half your feed 
bills. For combining fancy and market there is no breed as 
profitable as the Barred Rocks. 

A. 13. Buy a choice pen or pens properly mated by the 
seller to produce immediate results, and advise the party of 
whom purchased so he will know exactly what you wish to do. 

A. 14. Purchase a small pen to satisfy his immediate 
desires in the fancy line, and at the same time to give him an 
idea of what his chosen breed is like, and then stock up later 
on with eggs, as a hundred eggs would give him quite a flock. 

.4. 15. Go slow the first year so as to get some knowledge. 
No successful business man ever made a success at once of a 
business he had no knowledge of. Take all other lines of busi- 
ness as an example. They have all come up gradually. 

•4. 16. About the same as No. 15. 

.4. 17. Strictly fancy, would take Partridge Cochins. 

.4. IS. The percentage of culls is less. There is always a 
great demand for all the pullets you can possibly raise. and then 
the average demand for males will keep you closely cleaned up 
all the time. Besides I have always been able to get better 
prices for this breed. They are the easiest of all the large breeds 
to raise by artificial methods. 

.4. 19. Barred Plymouth Rooks. 

.4. 20. With this breed you can almost invariably select 
your poorest specimens at broiler age and thus avoid feeding so 
long — increasing the profit by this means. Further, most 
markets m\ uuM\ pa-, a higher price for Barred lv.-.ck; as tlun 
go on the market cleaner, their plumage not showing the dirt 
from their trip to market, like most other breeds. They are 
more active than their closest competitors, (the Wyandottes), 



41 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



easier to grow by artificial methods, as they are the last to die 
in a mixed flock of youngsters in brooders if conditions have 
not been I he I iest for their growth. 



THE BEST IS BEST 

GO TO REPUTABLE BREEDER AND BUY BEST HE 
WILL SELL-LEARN TO MATE FOR BEST RESULTS 

DR. O. P. BENNETT, Mazon, 111. 

ECIALTY BREEDER OF BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

.1 . 9. I would buy both. 

.1. 10. I would buy tlie Lest pen of fowls I could get in 

order to learn what constitutes B good fowl, also to learn the 

way to mate them. I would buy eggs from the I ■■ - - r 

i reeder and from his lust birds in order to get a chance for the 
best chicks. 

.1. 1 1. Buy as many good fowls as possible, keeping their 
produce and gradually getting rid of the mongrels. 

.1. 12. Sell all hi- old -lock, buy eggs and as many 
breeders as possible. Increase and Letter his flock from these. 

A. 13. Buy a pen or two of the very best fowls possible 

from the Lest breeder. Also I my the Lest eggs from .-ame 

breeder. 

A. 11. Begin as above bul only on a smaller scale. 

.1. 15. Let a reputable and capable breeder fit him out 
with a part of what he needs and then let him learn from these. 
Bj the time he has the proper experience he will have a large 
dock of his "« n. 

A. Li. Same as No. IS, but on a -mailer scale. 

.1 . 17. Barred l'lyi " '' Rocks. 

A. 18. 1 believe them to be the most practical and 
profitable fowl on the market. They are by far the best fowl 
for the farmer, market poultryman and for the fancier. 



THE FARMERS MISTAKE 

MONGRELS, MIXED BLOOD AND CROSSES NOT DE- 
SIRABLE— PURE-BREDS ARE BEST— KEEP ONE BREED 

F. J. WEHRMEYER, Benton Harbor, Mich. 

WHITE WYANDOTTE SPECIALIST 

A. 9 1 would buy both egg- and stock. 

A. 10. Because I. like the majority, could not afford to 
buy many high class birds, hence I should buy Lirds to the 
extent ol my ability financially, and then buy eggs from the -ame 
breeder. Almost everybody could buy a few nice Lirds; if not 
50 or 25, then a pen or trio. This increases the interest and 
gives one a few egg- to set, and above all, a few females and male 
to use in mating the next season with the choicest chicks raised 
from the eggs bought, and in this way start a "line" in breeding, 
i H course, if I did not understand what was meant by "line- 
Lieeding" I should immediately ask and learn; this Leing es- 
sential. 

A. 11. I do not believe in mongrels of any sort on a place 
tor farmers or others. I am a farmer as well as a breeder of 
poultry. I am sorry to say that entirely too many farmers of 
my acquaintance labor under the wrong impression that mixed 
blood, or stock, gives better results. No one has ever advanced 
a sound reason to substantiate this. It is all guess work and 
imagination. Pure-bred fowls thrive just as well, lay just as 
many eggs, are just as healthy, vigorous and thrifty as any 
mongrel ever dared to be. All that is necessary is for the farmer 



to occasionally buy a new male or two to place with his flock- 
This is true even with mongrels. Then why keep mongrels? 
They cost us no less to keep. Why not keep some one breed and 
let this be pure? When it conies to a question of marketing, 
especially alive, all dealers will tell you that a coop or crate 
of chickens all one color sells better than a mixed lot. All 
farmers know that pure-bred stock produces the best offspring — 
colts, shoats, calves, etc., and certainly poultry. Then why 
breed mongrels? Every farmer, I don't care where he is, rich or 
poor, appreciates nice looking animals around the farm. 

With horses, cows, hogs, etc., this question of pure-bred 
stock is usually a difficult one for the average farmer. When it 
is a question of chickens, what an easy matter to keep a pure- 
bred flock. Eggs from pure stock are so cheap and so easy to 
get. Let your Broody mongrels hatch and mother them, they'll 
thrive and grow as plump and fat as any mongrel chick. The 
next season buy a year-old cock bird of the same breed and mate 
him to your pullets. Gradually sell off your mongrel stock, and 
in just a short time the mongrels on your farm will be a thing of 
the past. Nothing — absolutely nothing — adds so much interest. 
1 1 ' a farm place as a beautiful flock of some one breed of chickens. 
Visitors admire them — the help around the place treat them 
with more respect (which usually means a little better care and 
better profits), the wife enjoys helping with the work among 
them and so do the boys and girls. 




A TRIO OF STANDARDBRED WHITE WYANDOTTES 

.4. 12. Start with some one breed of pure-bred stock, 
preferably White Wyandottes, the best that Iris purse will stand, 
gradually increasing the flock or flocks. Read good poultry 
journals. Show a few choice birds at different convenient 
poultry shows. Begin advertising in a reliable poultry journal. 
By raising a quantity there will lie lots of nice plump market 
stuck at top prices and some choice ones for breeding and exhi- 
bition purposes, or to supply others with eggs for hatching. 

A. 13. Personally visit several well known fanciers or 
breeders of the variety he has chosen, and there buy if possible 
the best fowls that money will obtain, or visit and buy at some 
poultry show. The breeder thus selling will gladly assist him 
from time to timeover any difficult problems in mating, etc., until 
he understands it better, for the average poultry fancier is a 
jolly good fellow and appreciates the fact that the "fancy" will 
never be overdone and always welcomes a new arrival. Then 
hatch and raise. Show the best you have at some exhibition — 
never mind whether you win or not, show the best you have 
anyhow. Affiliate with poultry clubs, join your local club, if 
any. Read good poultry journals and books and as soon as. 



■42 



STARTING IN THE BUSINESS 



possible begin advertising when ever you think you can spare 
either eggs or some surplus stock. 

A. 14. Assuming that the beginner has other means or 
other work that bring in money, he has but to buy some choice 
eggs, hatch and raise some stock. In a local way he will soon 
begin to grow, and by painstaking efforts succeed eventually in 
climbing up the ladder. He will fall back occasionally but this 
only adds to his determination and fires his ambition all the 
more. 

A. 15. Engage the services — if possible — of some ex- 
perienced poultry keeper or manager and do as he suggests. 

A. 16. Begin small, save a surplus to bridge over any 
set-backs and gradually grow step by s.tep. Perseverance — 
strict attention to the work — will count here as in any business. 
Begin with some known bred-to-lay stock and feed liberally for 
eggs and thus get started in increasing the profits so that all 
earnings can go toward the growth of the business. 

A. 17. White Wyandottes. 

A. 18. White Wyandottes are very interesting fowls in- 
asmuch as they afford much study (which proves a pleasure) to 
breed them to standard requirements. Being white in color 
they look more beautiful than any other fowl when seen in a 
yard or upon a green lawn. To realize that many people really 
enjoy seeing White Wyandottes one has only to listen to the 
remarks of visitors at poultry shows. As they view the various 
birds they suddenly come upon your favorites and with a burst 
of enthusiasm remark, "See those beautiful white chickens, 
are'nt they simply lovely?" What more does a fancier want 
than such indorsement to convince him that the White AVyan- 
dottes are worthy of being loved? 

.4. 19. White Wyandottes. 

A. 20. We have had other breeds and after experimenting 
with White Wyandottes have learned that they are of more 
value and, being finer-boned, are always preferred by the dis- 
criminating dealers. As broilers there is nothing to equal 
Wyandotte chicks, as they develop flesh rather than feathers. 
They will stand close confinement, responding readily to good 
treatment and when dressed are as plump and toothsome meat 
as it 's possible to conceive. The feathers being white are worth 
considerable, to say nothing of the pin feathers not showing as 
in colored varieties. 

.4. 21. White Wyandottes. 

-4. 22. Being known as the best all around purpose fowl. 
From a fancy view they keep you "busy" raising them to stand- 
ard quality. As layers they are hard to beat. When selling 
alive, in the market, nothing looks quite as nice or clean, and 
when dressed nothing as plump, fleshy and tempting. 



ONE MALE AND SIX FEMALES 

WILL GIVE A GOOD START AND SHOULD YIELD 
75 TO 100 GOOD CHICKS THE FIRST SEASON 

J. C. MACOMBER, Reading, Mass. 

BREEDER OF PARTRIDGE WYANDOTTES AND 
BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

.4. 9. I should buy both stock and eggs. 

.4. 10. The best and surest way to get the right start is 
to buy stock. It is more expensive, but if you get what you 
want, you may know what to expect of your chicks. Buy the 
fowls early enough and allow them to be well settled before the 
breeding season commences, so that the eggs will be more fertile 
and the. results more satisfactory. One should be able to raise 
to maturity 75 to 100 chicks from a pen of six females and one 
male. While buying eggs is more or less of a speculation, one 
is more than likely to get several birds out of a siting, each one 
of which is worth more than the cost of the eggs. 



A. 11. I should advise him to buy a couple of pens of 
pure-bred stock from a reliable breeder, at moderate prices. 
One can pick up pure-bred stock, that is not fancy, at from S2. 
to .13. for females, and $5. for cockerels. These pens should be 
kept separate, breeding as many birds from them as is possible, 
keeping along with his mongrels until he increases his pure-bred 
flock to as many as he desires to keep, then discard the mon- 
grels entirely. 

A. 12. I should advise that he purchase a couple of pens 
of as good stock as he can afford, breed them entirely separate 
from any stock that he might have, watch their breeding by 
marking and keeping a pedigree of all chicks each year. Save 
out the fanciest stock for breeders another season, using the 
fair to good youngsters for market purposes and sending a few 
of the fanciest to the fall and winter shows. When he finds that 
he is able to breed really fancy stock, advertise well, and when- 
ever he makes any sales, be sure that his customer is pleased, 
even though in pleasing him he may be taken advantage of. 

A. 13. Buy a pen — or, if it is necessary, in order to ob- 
tain exhibition specimens, to resort to double mating — buy two 
pens of the very best stock it is possible to get. Don't stop to 
consider price, if you can only get quality, then use a system 
of line breeding, and by the aid of trap nests, keep a careful 
pedigree of each chick so that you will know the breeding on 
the female side as well as on the male side. By carefully study- 
ing this system, you will soon find where your good birds come 
from, and you will soon be able to breed the kind you are looking 
for with very little trouble. 

.4. 14. I should advise him to stay out of it as a business, 
unless he could handle it on the side in connection with some 
other. In such a case, he should buy eggs until he succeeded 
in getting at least a pair of fancy exhibition birds, then start 
with them for his foundation stock. Such a course would take 
several years to get the business on a paying basis, but without 
much money, I believe it is useless to go into the fancy poultry 
business, excepting as a side issue. 

A. 15. If the beginner you refer to here does not thor- 
oughly understand the business, I should advise him to start in 
a very small way with the fanciest stock he can get, and learn to 
breed and care for fowls by handling them himself exclusively, 
and when he feels that he is thoroughly competent to master 
the business go into it on as large a scale as he thinks best. He 
should have by this time plenty of foundation stock, and if he 
has not the stock to suit him, he will surely know where and 
how to get it. 

A. 16. Same as in No. 15. 

A. 17. Partridge or Columbian Wyandottes or Barred 
-Plymouth Rocks. 

*4. 18. All three varieties are attractive, handsome, and 
leaders in the show room. The Barred Plymouth Rock is an 
old standby and the only objection to them for a beginner — con- 
sidering the business end of the fancy — is that he would need a 
great deal of experience and advertising before he could command 
the trade, there being so many well known breeders of this 
variety already With the Partridge and Columbian Wyan- 
dottes there are practically no old and established breeders, 
inasmuch as both breeds are comparatively new and especially 
the Columbian. There has been very little attention given them 
by breeders generally, until within the past two or three year-. 
Both breeds are bound to be popular and a beginner would stand 
a better show and get a big trade quicker on these varieties 
than he would by taking up the older ones. 

.4. HI. Barred Plymouth Bocks. Partridge or Columbian 
Wyandottes. 

.4. 20. All three of the above breeds cannot lie bettered 
for market purpose-. They arc L'reat layer-, and are splendid 
table fowls, besides they arc attractive in your yards, and a nice 
Hock of any one of these varieties i- a ureat satisfaction. Per- 



43 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



sonally I have bred nearly all varieties starting with the Barred 
Plymouth Rocks and each of the varieties which I have bred, I 
have tested along with the Barred Rocks. The first variety 
that I found that was their equal was the Partridge Wyandotte, 
and then the Columbian. Brahmas consumed more food and 
laid less eggs, but were a splendid table fowl. They were not 
as profitable as the Barred Rocks, so I discarded them. Leg- 
horns are handsome and just about equal to the Barred Ply- 
mouth Rocks as layers, but are too small to be profitable as 
table fowls. Hamburgs are out of it in every way, excepting 
that they are proud and pretty. White Plymouth Rocks and 
White Wyandottes fell a little below the Barred Rocks in weight 
and were not quite as good layers. Of course, I only give this 
as my experience and it is my reason for breeding the varieties 
that I do. 



GOOD START FOR LITTLE MONEY 



enced breeder the first year to select the best birds for breeders; 
breed only from the best specimens. 

A. 15. Buy largely of the highest quality birds, both for 
fancy and market poultry. 

A. 16. Buy eggs from special matings and from the best 
pens of breeders in both fancy and market poultry. 

.4. 17. White Wyandottes. 

A. 18. Because they are the best for layers and market 
poultry, easy to breed to standard requirements, and one of 
the most popular of breeds, if not the most popular. 

A. 19. White Wyandottes. 

A. 20. Because they are excellent layers, make the best 
broilers and look well as dressed poultry. As yearling hens 
they do not take on too much fat, as others do. 

,4. 21. White Wyandottes. 

A. 22. Because they combine the qualities which make 
an ideal fancy and market fowl. 



MAY BE HAD BY BUYING EGGS— BUY 
THE BEST FROM SPECIAL MATINGS 

C. BRICAULT, M. D. V., Andover, Mass. 

WHITE WYANDOTTE SPECIALIST 

A. 9. Eggs. 

A. 10. In buying eggs, one with limited means can get a 
much better start than lie would buying stock, for breeders will 
sell eggs from their best matings, and a very good start can be 
had for little money. 

.1. 11. By buying eggs for hatching from breeders who 
make it a point to breed for utility purposes; then gradually 
discard the mongrels and keep only the pure-breds. The best 




THREE COMPARTMENT FOOD HOPPER 

way would be to sell off every mongrel and invest in eggs for 
batching of the breed chosen. 

A. 12. Sell all the stock of mongrels now on the farm, 
and buy eggs for hatching from both the breeder who breeds 
exhibition stock and the one who breeds for market points, 
eggs and meat. 

A. 13. Buy the best specimens of the chosen breed that 
breeders can be induced to sell. Breed from these only, and cull 
down to the best birds every year. 

A. 14. Buy eggs from special matings. Get an experi- 



DON'T RAISE TOO MANY 

KEEP ONLY THOSE WHICH GIVE 
PROMISE OF DEVELOPING INTO EXTRA 
NICE, THRIFTY, VIGOROUS BIRDS 

BENJAMIN H. BAKER, Owensboro, Ky. 

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCK SPECIALIST 

A. 9. I would buy both fowls and eggs. 

A. 10. I would go to a breeder of my favorite variety 
whom I knew to be progressive, and buy a few of the best birds 
that he would sell and then contract with him for eggs from 
birds bred in line with the ones that I had purchased. By this 
method one would be surer of getting a good foundation and I 
would consider it of the greatest importance in establishing a 
line of breeding. 

.4. 11. I think the best method would be to buy cock- 
erels from some good reliable breeder every year, always insist- 
ing on birds of good size and plenty of vigor. By this method 
one could easily improve his females and dispose of his cock- 
erels and surplus pullets at a much better price than usual. 
By this method he would increase the size of his hens and when 
through with them they would bring nearly double what the 
mongrels ordinarily do. 

.4. 12. I think it would be well for him to select some 
popular variety that has good market qualities, not try to raise 
too many and keep only those which give promise of developing 
into extra nice, thrifty, vigorous birds. Show at his most con- 
venient local show and build up a trade that he can hold. The 
first few years do not ask the prices that the foremost breeders 
get, but be liberal with his customers and they will soon come 
"to believe in him." 

A. 13. The beginner with ample funds can well afford to 
get the best birds he can obtain. He would naturally want to 
try to raise some birds himself; but I think it would be well for 
him to select some good locality in the country and offer the 
farmer's wives a premium above the market price to raise a 
few choice birds for him — he to furnish the eggs from his yards. 
By this method he is most certain to get some extra good birds 
even if he is not successful with his own flocks. 

A. 14. To this person the road to eminent success is 
likely to be quite long with many turns in it. He had better 
go a little slowly for a while or he will become disheartened and 
give up. I would advise him to secure the confidence of some 
good reliable breeder, buy eggs from him each season, and with 
proper care in a few years he would likely have a good sized 
flock of excellent birds. 



44 



STARTING IN THE BUSINESS 



A. 15. Place his money on interest and invest only a 
small amount in birds until he becomes thoroughly acquainted 
with the business. 

A. 17. Barred Plymouth Rocks. 

A. 18. They are conceded to be the most popular variety 
by both farmer and fancier. From a practical point of view 
they stand at the head as the best general purpose fowl which 
rank they have long held, and the indications are that they will 
continue to hold it for some time to come. Wherever you go 
you are sure to find Barred Rocks or fowls that resemble them 
very much. The farmer's wives each year, being anxious to 
improve their flocks, usually select some progressive breeder 
from whom to buy new blood, generally buying cockerels. At 
a result you seldom ever find a breeder of Barred Rocks thas 
has enough good birds to supply his demand. 

From the fancy point of view there is no variety that when 
bred up to its highest state of perfection more appeals to one's 
fancy for the beauty in its markings and feathers. They have 
always taxed the minds of the best breeders to raise them to 
their present perfection, and the indications are that they will 
continue to require the most careful breeding to improve them. 

A. 19. I would cross Cornish Indian's with Barred Ply- 
mouth Rocks. 

A. 20. I have found by experience and believe that it is 
generally conceded by those who have tried them that the 
Cornish Indians stand easily at the head of all varieties as a 
table fowl, and when crossed on the American varieties they 
seem to transmit that quality, and I found that they grow very 
rapidly into big, fine table fowls. 

A. 21. Barred Plymouth Rocks and Single Comb Brown 
Leghorns . 

A. 22. Consider the practical qualities that they have — 
the Barred Rock being a good, general purpose fowl and the 
Leghorn an excellent layer. The great numbers that are bred 
create quite a good demand for breeders. This sustains the 
fancy side of it,thns giving one a ready market at a good price 
for his best specimens. 



START WITH EGGS 

THEN GROW UP IN THE BUSINESS 
ALONG WITH THE CHICKENS— GOOD 
STOCK WORTH A GOOD PRICE 

J. W. 'PARKS, Altoona, Pa. 

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCK SPECIALIST 

A. 9. Eggs. 

A. 10. My main reason would be, that by buying eggs 
I would grow up with the business right along with the chickens. 

Second: Were I to buy stock I would not know exactly 
what the fowls were fed on, and changing off from one system of 
feeding right on to some other method does not always pan out. 
I know that from experience, as one customer will write that the 
birds were received all O. K. and are laying fine, and another 
man that was sent full sisters right from the same pen, will coin- 
plain about poor laying. I of course cannot write each customer 
my methods of feeding in full. 

Third: It is not advisable to change fowls from one method 
of housing to another. For instance, I use the open front coops 
exclusively, and might sell stock to a man who was afraid fresh 
air would hurt his stock. He might raise stock himself with 
this system, but mine would hardly do well under the change. 

A. 11. I would advise Mr. Fanner to study his market a 
little and see what it called for in the way of eggs and fowls. 
Should his market call for brown eggs, it will at the same time 



call for yellow-skinned fowls, as I find everybody is after the 
yellow skin. I would pick out the hens that come the nearest 
to having good yellow skin, and the ones that laid the brown 
eggs. You of course would not have much trouble selecting the 
ones that laid the brown eggs, as most any kind of a hen except 
the Leghorn and Minorca will lay these. 

With these I would mate male birds — cockerels — of some 
well known breed that filled the demands of your market. I 
would of course be sure that the breeder from whom I bought 
kept the kind of goods I wanted. Then I would send him what- 
ever amount I could spare, say 85, and ask him to please send 
me the best bird he could for the money. Right here you might 
remind him of the points you are working for. 

When selecting the breeder to buy from it might be well to 
remember that all birds of the breed you chose are not good 
layers. We quite often hear the remark that such and such a 
breed are no good for laying, while it should be said instead that 
the females of such and such a strain are not good layers, or 
sitters or whatever the kick may be. A strain in our notion 
means that such and such a person has worked and improved 
his stock by scientific breeding, etc., until it surpasses some 
other person's strain in some points, hence the importance in 
selecting the breeder that satisfies your wants. 

A. 12. I would invest in selected eggs for hatching, and 
would place them under hens well dusted with lice powder of 
some kind at least twice during incubation. The number of 
eggs to buy, of course, would depend on how extensively he 
wanted to go into the business, but above all don't invest your 
hard-earned money in the cheapest fowls you find on the market. 
I have in mind a neighbor of ours that sent clear out to Iowa to 
get Leghorn eggs at $4. per 100, and from the 500 eggs purchased 
he has about 30 small frys. I believe he could have sent to 
Colorado, bought eggs from some reliable breeder that charged 
an honest price, and had more chicks from 100 eggs. If a breeder 
has good stock he has worked hard to get it. or paid a nice price, 
and cannot give his goods away. 

A. 13. I would go and work on some up-to-date poultry 
farm for a year at least, and get some knowledge of what a good 
chicken is and learn to know that every egg from a fine hen 
does not hatch a winner. I would have some experience at 
least if I had to work for merely nothing. I remember well of 
working for seventy-five cents a week and my board while learn- 
ing the business, and at the age of seventeen. 

Next, I would buy an incubator or two and right here the 
cheapest is generally the dearest, as it costs money to put up a 
good incubator with a ten or twenty year guarantee back of it. 
Would also buy a. few hens for hatching. You might buy com- 
mon hens in the fall and as soon as they got broody set them, 
and should you not have luck with your incubators you would 
have hens to fall back on, and vice versa. I would next select 
the breeders of the variety that I wanted, and choose the men 
that had been doing the winning, and buy eggs from select stock. 
These generally come high, as they represent years of hard work, 
hence the importance of knowing a little about the business be- 
fore you get too much capital invested. 

If I were buying a place to start on I would try and get 
one with a south-eastern slope and sandy ground if possible, 
and if you are able to get a place with a stream of water on it 
that can be run through the yards, you are all to the good. 

I would invest in a Standard and commit the requirements 
of my chosen breed to memory, watch my stock closely, see 
where they lacked, and work to overcome that in my next year's 
mating. I would take in the smaller shows first, if successful I 
would prepare to make some of the larger shows, alter winning 
would use printer's ink liberally, let the people know I had the 
goods, and the trade would come. 

.4. 14. Just the same as the man that had the money 
would have to do, to try and get a little knowledge of the busi- 



45 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



aess somewhere. We have men who have started right in their 
backyard with a few chickens, and today are the foremost 
breeders, but to learn the business it must be taken slowly and 
your ground well worked. 

I would buy a few hens, and when they got broody send to 
sonic reliable breeder of the chosen variety. My object would 
be to get a few good ones to start with, and then breed from 
them. The next year you could have the breeder you buy from 
.-ell you egg- from several pens, keep tab on them, and mate 
youi Btock without purchasing new blood the second year. 

A. 1.5. He too would have to go through the mill to be 
able t,> jump right into the business on a large scale. Visit some 
of the successful poultry farm- and note the style of buildings, 
etc. Have an expert lay out the plant and have the same built 
while you are learning the business, (let some man that under- 
stood the business to go in with you, especially some man that 
was without funds wn0 would be willing to buckle on his years 
ol experience to your capital. At the same time it would be 
well to remember that just because you furnished the money 
you don't necessarily know the business. I have in mind a man 

that used to take his visitors through his incubator cellar and 
jus out of the machines to show how it was done. 
• t. lli. Study the markets and find out the variety that 
i- the most in demand. lake into consideration the variety that 
is the most popular :il the shows. I would advise an amateur 
to select - old reliable -train to start with, and leave the new 

varieties foi tin- experienced breeders to work on. 1 would buy 

a great many eggs of some reliable breeder who -old his egge a1 
a lair price, Even if you did not get so many choice birds you 
would have some to supply your market. You should trap nest 
your bird- lor the first laying year, and -elect for your breeding 

Btoci lor tin- second year the females that are the best layer.-. 
Market the poor layers; they will bring just as good a price on 

the market as the good layers and perhaps more. The poor 

laye rallj < Fat sluggish hen. [ would take a few of the 

i one- to a local show where the competition was not so 
keen, and if 1 won would -tart several little ads in -oine paper 
with a "-worn circulation," and above all advertise only what 
you have. Vim will not have any 96-point hens the first year, 
nor will you find many 200-egg hen-. I he winner- and the 
>ou do have will depend a whole lot on who you bought 
your eggs from. 

.1. 17. Haired Plymout h Rocks. 

A. I s Because there if re of a demand for them than 

any other variety. They are one of the oldest varieties, and the 
variety that we find some of in almost every Hock of chickens. 
I In \ have stood their ground while other varieties have come 
and gone. They are one of the hardest varieties to breed which 
make- it all the more -port, for there is not much real sport in 
working tor something that can easily be obtained. They are 
the variety that you always see the visitors crowded around in 
all our big shows. They are of the type that can be developed 
as layers, and not lose any of their winning points. 

A. 19. Barred Plymouth Rocks. 

.4. 20. They stand at the head of the list as the best all 
purpose fowl. They have yellow legs, and beaks, beautiful 
blue gray barred plumage, which makes them a desirable fowl 
tor cither city or country as they do not show the dirt, and are 
not as quickly noticed by the hawks or crows as the white 
varieties. They are remarkably hardy, easy raised, are the best 
of layers if encouraged a little in that direction, and are good 
sitters ami mothers. They have the much desired yellow -kin, 
and when dressed for market are quick sellers. These generally 
conceded points of excellence fully account for the universal 
popularity of this breed. 

. 1 . 1' 1 . Barred Plymouth Rocks. 

A. 22. There is always a demand for them as fancy stock, 
owing to their universal popularity, while there is always a 



demand for them on the markets, owing to their yellow skin 
and small bones. They will lay as many eggs in a year as any 
other variety, while they spend some time clucking around — 
the non-sitter also takes her rest. They lay a brown egg, and 
with a little extra care and judicious breeding by using trap- 
nests, they will lay large brown eggs and lots of them. 



START WITH LINE-BRED STOCK 

FOLLOW UP BY BREEDING IN LINE— 
DON'T WASTE TIME "IMPROVING" 
SCRUB STOCK— ONE VARIETY ENOUGH 

J. H. DOANE, Gouverneur, N. Y. 

BREEDER OF SINGLE COMB BLACK MINORCAS 
AND WHITE VVVANDOTTES 

A. 9. Unless I could visit the breeder and get full infor- 
mation as to the breeding, would surely buy eggs from "line-bred 
stock" for a new start. 

.4. 10. One can buy eggs from a breeder's very best birds 
at a moderate price, quality considered, while to buy the best 
bird- requires an outlay of cash that takes the ardor off most 
beginners. Unless a beginner fully knows the breeding of his 
stock, he is very liable to go wrong in breeding, if he procures 
stock from different breeders. Not knowing how the birds 
were bred, the chances are more than even that they will not 
breed properly from a standard-bred standpoint. Knowing 
what I do, would surely buy eggs from a breeder who has a repu- 
tation won in competition in the best shows, who breeds in line 
of descent, for he would inform me how they were bred and I 
Could follow up his line of breeding. 

.4. 11. Hit them where the chicken got the ax. Next 
best thing is to get a well fired standard-bred male and grade up. 
But life is all too short for such a course in poultry breeding. 
With cattle, horses, sheep or swine it is well enough to grade up. 
With poultry the cost of a few settings of eggs from well bred 
stock is small, profit and pleasure considered, and the course 
is all too long to spend time improving mongrel fowls. Any 
farmer can buy a few sittings of eggs from some nearby breeder 
and the chicks will be uniform (to a great extent ) and tlrat alone 
will give him a neat profit above his mongrel stock; while the 
next year he can raise his own standard-bred clucks. 

.4. 12. Procure his eggs, (or stock if he prefers) from a 
strictly fancy breeder of the breed or variety he desires to keep. 
Be sure they are "line-bred." Select the best specimens to breed 
from. Get full advice from the breeder how to follow up his 
line of mating. Market all chicks that do not come up to a high 
standard. Do not be afraid to cull the second time; culls are 
sure to come from the choicest mating. Give your customers 
full value for their money and you will succeed. Not all will be 
pleased, but stand ready to take back all stock under a guarantee 
to please, for some men value a dollar too highly to be pleased 
even though they get the pick of your flock. You can find 
plenty of purchasers for your good birds. 

A. 13. Not having had the pleasure of plenty of means 
(ready ensh), my advice is to get the best stock you can, devote 
to it all the time and care you have at your command. Exhibit 
your best birds and be prepared to take defeat from the fellow 
who has to watch his birds, for the chances are more than even 
that he will wax you. Not because he is more intelligent by 
any means, but because being limited in means, he must watch 
every small item. A beginner with ample funds who will devote 
liis spare time and watch details with care, who possesses a 
fancier's pride, can select, cull and care for his birds and put 
them in the show room in such condition that they should win. 



46 



STARTING IN THE BUSINESS 



Many of our best fanciers who have means put their birds in the 
shows in the pink of condition and win. But this is a case where 
"millions do not count," it is care and study that win out. 

A. 14. Buy the best you can; keep your eye peeled for 
defects and cull like fury. No buyer ever went to Dunn's or 
Bradstreet's to see where he should buy his show birds, else the 
writer would be awaiting his first order. Be sure you know 
your choice of breeds and stick to it. One variety is plenty; 
two should be the limit. Do not let another's success lead you 
to discard your own first choice. Any one of many varieties 
are "the best hens on earth." It rests with the fancier to put 
on the gilt edge. Remember that many others are striving for 
first place, and constant care and watchfulness is the price of 
success in the fancy. 

A. 15 and 16. I could suggest no difference in methods 
to be followed by these two parties, except that the beginner 
with moderate means would exercise more diligence and care 
because of his lack of funds, thereby outstripping the fellow 
with means, unless the latter forgets his cash and "pulls off his 
coat" himself. 

A. 17. Single-Comb Black Minorcas. 

A. 18. Experience of eighteen years with Black Minorcos 
has convinced me that the demand for really good specimens 
of this breed is far ahead of the supply, and at very good prices. 
Not only the best birds are in demand, but birds of less quality 
from a show point are in constant demand properly mated as 
breeders. Other breeds may do well with their owners. The 
Minorcas being splendid layers, quick sellers and easily confined, 
make an ideal fowl for the fancier. There is no speculation as to 
the outcome; a sure profit awaits the breeder if he but lets the 
buying public know he has the stock and will deliver quality 
equivalent to the buyer's cash. Quick growers, early layers, 
unlimited demand for a limited supply, make the Minorcas an 
ideal breed. 

A. 19. White Wyandottes. 

A. 20. White Wyandottes are probably bred in larger 
numbers both for the fancy and market than any other breed 
or variety. Believing as the writer does that "fancy and market 
poultry should go together," and the fact that White Wyan- 
dottes dress plump, as broilers, light and heavy roasters or 
mature fowl, together with their early maturity, excellent laying 
qualities, docile disposition and hardiness, easily commends 
them as the peer of all breeds or varieties for market poultry. 

A. 21. Black Minorcas and White Wyandottes. 

A. 22. Both are very popular, quick growers, good 
layers, in good demand both as fancy and market poultry; large, 
plump bodies with excess of breast meat. Being popular and 
in great demand, makes these two varieties of as great if not 
greater as a combination for fancy and market than any other. 



COST OF STOCK 

AVERAGE COST OF RAISING PURE- 
BREDS FROM EGGS AT $5 A SIT- 
TING—KEEP A RECORD OF CHICKS 

FRANK McGRANN, Lancaster, Pa. 

BREEDER OF SINGLE COMB BLACK MINORCAS; BARRED PLYMOUTH 

ROCKS; WHITE WYANDOTTES AND SINGLE 

COMB WHITE LEGHORNS 

A. 9. Without much money to invest I would purchase 
eggs, but with ample funds -Would purchase the best stock that 
money could buy. 

A. 10. Figuring eggs at $5. per sitting, from pure-bred 
stock, one can expect at least a 75 per cent hatch, and should 
raise 75 per cent of the chicks, and should have at least a trio 



of breeders to each sitting. A trio of pure-bred birds will cost 
on an average $25., and the cost of rearing chicks will be about 
$1. per chick. Therefore a trio of birds hatched and reared will 
cost $8. In buying eggs, one never knows just how good the 
stock which produced the eggs really is until the chicks have 
matured, therefore if you are not certain that the poultryman, 
who sells you eggs, is perfectly honest you will often come out 
at the small end of the horn. In buying stock direct, you can 
have the birds sent on approval, and if they fail to come up to 
your expectations you may return them. 

A. 11. Let him select the best females out of his entire 
flock and mate them separately to pure-bred Plymouth B,ock 
or Wyandotte males. Hatch only from these pens, and in several 
years he will have a fine flock of market poultry. 

A. 12. Let him select a variety of fowls which will answer 
his purpose, both for fancy and market. He can sell the best of 
his stock for good prices and sell his eggs for hatching, and his 
culls will make fine market poultry. I am of the opinion that 
there is no better fowl for this purpose than the Ptymouth Rock 
or Wyandotte. 

A. 13. Purchase a pen of the best birds which you can 
secure, and request the poultryman from whom you purchase 
to mate them for you. Place leg bands on all of your females, 




A SMALL COLONY BROOD COOP 

and- use trap nests. Keep a strict account of all your eggs, by 
numbering them. When it comes to hatching the eggs, if you 
use an incubator, place each- hen's eggs in a separate compart- 
ment of a pedigree tray just before they begin to pip, and if 
you prefer to hatch with a hen, give to each hen, eggs from one 
hen only. 

When the chicks are hatched, and are ready to be removed 
from the incubator, or from under the hen, punch mark them in 
the web of the foot giving each hen's chicks a separate mark, 
where there are not more than fifteen hens in the pen. Where 
there are more than that number, give a special mark to what 
you consider your best liens, ami give all other hens in the pen 
the same mark. By following this method, you can find out 
just which of your females breed the best exhibition specimens, 
and will also know just how to mate your birds in future seasons. 

As soon as you have any birds which you believe arc tit to 
show, do so and go to the show with your birds. Here you will 

meet various poultrymen with whom you can compare notes, 
and receive some valuable information. 

A. 11. Buy eggs from some good reliable poultryman, and 
proceed as in No. 13. 

.1. 15. Same as Nbs. 12 and 13, only purchase more birds. 



47 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



A. 16. Same as Nos. 12, 13, 14 and 15. 

.4. 17. Single-Comb Black Minorcas and Single-Comb 
White Leghorns. 

A. 18. I have had more demand for Black Minorcas than 
any of the other varieties which I have heretofore bred, and think 
this is due to the fact that the Minorcas lay a larger egg than 
any other fowl. Some people prefer to have a white bird and 
for this reason I have selected the Single-Comb White Leghorn, 
as they also possess fine laying qualities and are an excellent 
"all-round" fowl. 

.4. 19. Either Barred Plymouth Rocks or White Wyan- 
dottes. 

A. 20. Because they mature very rapidly, are easily 
reared, and have a fine appearance when dressed for market. 

A. 21. Columbian Wyandottes. 

A. 22. Because they are very popular among the fanciers, 
and possess good qualities as a market fowl. 

EXPRESS COMPANIES RUIN EGGS 

EGGS FOR HATCHING LIABLE TO 
BE INJURED DURING SHIPMENT- 
SAFER TO START WITH STOCK 

W. R. GRAVES, Springfield, Mass. 

WHITE WYANDOTTE SPECIALIST 

.1. !». Would buy fowls, if not more than one pair. 

.1. 10. For the reason that unless you can obtain the 
eggs yourself BO a- not to depend on the express companies 
handling, which ruins more good eggs than any other cause, you 
are liable to have discouraging results. Also, for the fact that 
while you cannot buy the best birds a breeder owns at a fair 
price, it is doubtful if you can get eggs from the individual hens 




A COLONY POULTRY HOUSE 

that produce the prize winning or highest quality birds. The 
breeder usually has some stock for sale from these birds that are 
not their equal in points, but on account of the blood lines back 
of them, they will, well mated, breed stock equal to their 
grandsires, which they usually take after. 

.1. 11. Would advise purchasing a pure-bred male each 
year and breeding to the most vigorous and persistent layers. 

.4. 12. Buy a pair or more as his means would warrant, 
raising all the chicks he could from them through the breeding 
season, 



A. 13. Would advise him to find out the breeder that 
breeds and raises the prize stock at some leading show of the 
breed he desires, and purchase of him the best that he will sell. 
It is very essential that he find out for certain who has bred the 
winners, for they are not always bred by the exhibitor. 

A. 14. Would advise him to secure a partner that has 
had many years' experience in this work, but has not the means 
to invest in it heavily himself, placing his money against the 
other man's experience. 

A. 17. White Wyandottes or White Plymouth Rocks. 

A. 18. They are the best for a general purpose fowl, 
suiting many locations in the United States. 



CHEAPER-MORE SATISFACTORY 

TO BEGIN WITH STOCK— CAN 
RAISE NICE FLOCK FROM A TRIO 

A. & E. TARBOX, Yorkville, N. Y. 

SPECIALTY BREEDERS OF SILVER LACED WYANDOTTES 

.4. 9. Fowls. 

.4. 10. Consider it cheaper and more satisfactory. When 
you buy stock you have the fowls to continue laying and to use 
another year if you want them. One can raise a nice flock from 
a trio. 

.4. 11 Buy a trio or pen of fowls of the breed he fancied; 
if he could not do this, buy cockerels and better the flock that 
way. 

A. 16. Buy a few good birds and breed from them, the 
next year breed from them and their chicks and keep increasing 
until he gets the desired number. 

A. 17 and 19. Silver Laced Wyandottes. 

A. 18 and 20. They furnish the fancier plenty of work. 
Are one of the prettiest breeds there is. They are one of the 
best general purpose fowls. A gentleman from California says: 
"I have always considered the Silver-Laced Wyandottes, as 
bred to the present standard and as actually seen at the large 
shows, the greatest work in the poultry kingdom of the moulding 
of man's hands, the very highest perfection of workmanship in 
poultry craft." We agree with him. They grow quickly, 
have a compact body, and are yellow meated. 



THREE OR FOUR PENS 

GIVE A GOOD START— HAVE THEM DIFFER- 
ENT FAMILIES BUT ALL THE SAME STRAIN 

F. W. RICHARDSON, Hicksville, Ohio 

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCK SPECIALIST 

A. 9. Fowls. 

.4. 10. Buy the best money could buy. Visit some good 
breeder and know just what you are buying. In buying eggs you 
have to chance getting them from good specimens, also of getting 
a good hatch, and then they have to be developed well, which 
an experienced breeder can do best. 

.4. . 11. Buy some cockerels from some good breeder, 
birds that he does not wish to sell to his fancy trade on account 
of defective combs, eyes, etc. They can be bought at a very 
reasonable price and will much improve the flock. 

.4. 12. Would buy a good breeding pen of the chosen 
variety and pen them separately, and should raise enough good 
birds the first year to get a good start of pure-breds. Sell the 



48 



STARTING IN THE BUSINESS 



culls on market, keeping the best specimens for the following 
year, and buy a good cockerel to mate with the pullets kept. 

A. 13. I would buy the best male and two females that 
I could get of the variety I wished to breed. Have them prop- 
erly mated to produce the desired results. 

A. 14. Visit one of the best breeders having the variety 
desired. Purchase three or four good breeding pens properly 
mated to produce exhibition specimens, but from the same 
strain. Would never put much money in buildings until I was 
thoroughly established in the fancy. 

A. 15. I would want to build large, roomy buildings, 
large yards, and have them well scattered; then buy the best 
birds possible to stock the buildings and yards. 

A. 16. Would start at the bottom of the ladder, by buy- 
ing the best birds for breeders within my means; not expend 
much on the buildings at the start, and then increase as the 
market justifies. 

A. 17. Barred Plymouth Rocks. 

A. 18. There is no other breed on earth that has the 
same keen competition in the show room. It is competition 
that makes a great demand for high quality specimens at big 
prices. The Barred Plymouth Rock is the most popular breed 
among the farmers, making a good demand for all off-colored 
specimens. They are as good layers as any large breed, and sell 
well on the market as table fowls. 



THE GREATEST DEMAND 



can buy eggs from a breeder's best pens even though he cannot 
buy the birds, thereby getting the right kind for his foundation 
stock. 

A. 15. Buy the fowls with which to start, selecting a 
variety that are good layers, of good size and at the same time 
that are in popular demand for fancy purposes. 

A. 16. My answer to question No. 15 also answers this 
one, with the exception that I would advise this beginner to 
buy eggs instead of fowls with which to start. 

A. 17. White Plymouth Rocks. 

A. 18. In raising or offering anything to sell, whether it 
be fancy poultry or any of the necessities of life, it is to your 
interest from a money-making standpoint to raise or offer for 
sale whatever is in the greatest demand and can be sold for 
prices that are profitable to the producer. And when it is a 
fact that for the past ten years the White Plymouth Rocks have 
been in greater demand and have been sold at higher prices 
than any other variety, and that they are easier to breed to 
standard requirements than any other variety, it is certainly 
convincing to the most skeptical person contemplating starting 
in the poultry business that this is the best variety that he can 
breed. 

A. 19. White Plymouth Rocks. 

A. 20. For layers they are excelled by no other variety, 
being good winter as well as summer layers, and their large size, 
their quick maturing qualities, their pure-white plumage, and 
their rich yellow skin and legs make them an ideal market fowl. 



AT PRICES PROFITABLE TO PRODUCER INDICATES 
THE BEST FROM MONEY-MAKING STAND POINT 

J. T. THOMPSON, Hope, Indiana 

BREEDER OF WHITE PLYMOUTH ROCKS AND MAMMOTH 
BRONZE TURKEYS 

A. 9. I would buy either the fowls or eggs. 

A. 10. If I had a reasonable amount to invest I would 
buy the fowls, but if my means were limited I would buy eggs, 
for while it takes a little more time to start with eggs, it is never- 
theless much the cheapest way to start. 

A. 11. I would advise him to buy a vigorous male of the 
variety that he prefers to mate with his mongrels, using good 
judgment of course, in selecting the male. If he wants to in- 
crease the size of his stock, not caring anything about improving 
the egg yield, I would advise him to get a male of any of the 
large varieties, while if he wants to improve the laying qualities 
of his flock, and at the same time raise stock that is good size, 
and will bring a good price on the market, I would advise getting 
a male of an American variety. 

A. 12. The farmer that wishes to make more money 
from poultry, from a fancy as well as from a market standpoint, 
must select a breed or variety that are good layers, good size, 
will mature quickly, and at the same time are popular with the 
fanciers of the country, which insures him a good demand for 
all the best specimens he raises each season, and at good prices. 

-4. 13. I would advise him to buy from a reliable breeder 
some of his best specimens, buying only a few of the most select. 
From the same breeder I would buy each season a few eggs from 
his very best pens. By mating the best birds raised from liis 
eggs with the best ones that you raised from your matings you 
would not be breeding them too close, and at the same time 
keeping your flock free from any foreign bloqd. Not only that, 
but by buying a few eggs from his best pens each season, you 
certainly stand as good a chance of raising as good birds as he 
does. 

.4. 14. Start with eggs, as that is the cheapest way. He 



EITHER EGGS OR STOCK 

BOTH CAN BE DEPENDED UPON TO GIVE A 
GOOD START IF FROM EQUALLY GOOD SOURCE 

C. H. WYCKOFF, Aurora, N. Y. 

SINGLE COMB WHITE LEGHORN SPECIALIST 

-4. 9. Would buy eggs or fowls according to which best 
suited my needs at the time. 

A. 10. From the great number of reports received from 
our customers during the many years we have been supplying 
them with both breeding stock and eggs for hatching, I find that 
about as many credit their success to having started by one 
method as the other. I am therefore convinced that where the 
breeding stock and eggs offered are of equal strength and breed- 
ing, the selection may be decided by the purchaser taking which- 
ever is best suited to his convenience at the time. 

.4. 11. Dispose of the mongrels entirely and start with 
pure-bred stock of the varieties desired. Or, if unwilling to go 
to this expense, purchase male birds each fall and breed up the 
mongrels. I believe however, that the first proposition is 
cheapest in the end. 

A. 12 and 13. Nothing short of preaching a whole sermon 
would do this question justice, and I have quit preaching. As 
a short answer will say however, read the matter up in the poultry 
journals, study it and follow up by visiting successful poultry 
plants; then go to work at it and get the knowledge by practical 
experience that cannot lie had by any other means. 

A. 14 and 15. Obtain by the best means available a 
whole lot of practical experience. 

.1. 16. Same answer as No. 14. While knowledge ob- 
tained by other means may be an aid to success, yet a thorough 
practical knowledge of the branch of poult ry business desired 
is the only thing in my judgment that will insure it. 

.4. 17. Single-Comb White Leghorns. 

.4. IS. My admiration for the breed coupled with the 
great and growing demand for them. 



49 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



A. 19. Single-Comb White Leghorns. 

A. 20. They will produce more value (money) in their 
eggs laid during the year for a given amount of value (money) 
in the food consumed than any other breed or variety of my 
knowledge. They give me full satisfaction in both pleasure and 
profit. 



SMALL PLANT WELL MANAGED 



which command a fancy price on the New York market. Fifth 
and last : They are the most beautiful fowls and there is a great 
demand for them. 

A. 19. White Wyandottes. 

A. 20. Because they take on flesh quickly and easily, 
have a plump yellow carcass, and being white, pin feathers do 
not show as plainly as in colored varieties. Their bodies are 
always plump, where as the Rocks are all frame until nearly 
matured; the latter put on flesh after their frames are developed. 



IS BEST FOR BEGINNER OF SMALL OR AMPLE 
MEANS AND WILL YIELD LARGER PROFITS 

IRVING F. RICE, Cortland, N. Y. 

SINGLE COMB WHITE LECHORN SPECIALIST 

A. 9. I would buy a good breeding pen and also eggs 
from a reliable breeder. 

A. 10. If there is a question of means a breeder can get 
a cheaper start with eggs if he can be sure he is getting what 
he buys. At the same time if he can buy good fowls for a founda- 
tion he has a profit while t he chicks are growing, and the eggs 
from a good flock will not only pay for their own keeping but 
should pay for the food consumed by the small chicks. While 
the chicks from purchased eggs alone must be kept at an expense 
until five or six months old before any income is received, except 
that derived from selling the surplus cockerels. 

A. 11. I would advise that all mongrels are sold and a 
pen of standard-bred fowls purchased, but if this is not practical 
1 would advise that a cock of the preferred variety be mated to 
the best hens of the flock adapted to this purpose. 

A. 12. A farmer to cater to the fancy poultry trade must 
be also a "fancier" and must exhibit his stock at fairs and shows. 
\fter exhibiting and winning he must advertise his stock and 
eggs in a good poultry journal. Build comfortable houses and 
give his poultry as much care and attention as he does his other 
farm stock. 

A. 13. I would advise a beginner with ample funds to 
purchase a choice breeding pen from a good reliable breeder and 
pay him his price, do not ask for his "lowest price on his best 
birds," but pay for a good pen carefully selected and mated 
for best results, and then increase your flock by hatching eggs 
if you feel that you can trust the breeder to send you what 
you pay for. 

A. 14. Buy as many good birds as you can, then exhibit 
them at fairs and small shows until you have thoroughly learned 
the requirements of prize winning birds, gradually entering the 
large shows. Then select a good paper and advertise your stock 
and winnings continually until the people are familiar with 
your name and breed; always use great care in selecting and 
breeding your birds, and above all treat your customers honor- 
ably. 

A. 15. However ample the funds. I would say go care- 
fully and slowly; do not embark too heavily at first; a small 
plant well conducted and carefully managed will yield larger 
profits than a large plant, dependent upon hired help who are 
interested only in putting in their time and drawing their pay. 
It is a business made up of minute details and it is the little 
unmanaged things and leaks that eat up the profits. 

A. 17. White Leghorns. 

A. 18. First: They are the most practical fowl, hardy 
and easy to hatch and raise and the best layers for the smallest 
quantity of feed. Second: More can be housed in a building 
than can the larger breeds. Third: There is no danger of 
overfeeding them, as they are active and always busy. The egg 
farms are all stocked with this variety which proves them to be 
the best egg machines. Fourth: They lay large white eggs 



BREEDING STOCK BEST START 

EGGS GIVE GREATEST GOOD FOR LEAST 
POSSIBLE OUTLAY AND ARE BEST FOR 
A BEGINNER WITH A SMALL PURSE 

ARTHUR G. DUSTON, South Framingham, Mass. 

WHITE WYANDOTTE SPECIALIST 

A. 9. Fowls. 

A. 10. I have answered fowls instead of eggs with the 
mental proviso that I have the money to invest that would 
allow me to buy the quality that I would want. To start with 
stock I would be the gainer by having the birds in hand, and 
would not have to trust to the uncertainties, however slight, of 
a regular mating. I would have the stock on my place con- 
trolling in a great measure the fertility and avoiding the risk 
of any injury to the eggs, but the outlay would be many times 
greater. 

A. 11. The introduction of big, strong males and, if 
possible, a side pen of pure-breds to gradually replace the flock 
of mongrels. 

A. 12. Do as already suggested, get a small pen of good 
birds and as fast as possible discard the common hens, have 
nothing but fancy birds, and by all means only one variety 
that they may roam at will and not run any risk of being mixed 
up with another breed. This permits one to bend all his energies 
to the perfecting of this one variety. 

A. 13. Buy the best to be had. Study and breed them 
along accepted lines. 

A. 14. This party must go slower and to achieve the 
greatest success for the least possible outlay he will purchase 
eggs for hatching from some strong matings, raising with care 
the chicks, and,_if he wants the best results to be obtained from 
the young the next year, he will be guided by the advice of the 
party from whom he makes Iris original purchase when making 
his matings for another year. 

A. 15. Buy a good, big flock of fair breeders for the 
foundation flock for the market, of the variety chosen, and one 
or two pens of high class birds. In this way one can continually 
strengthen his whole line, by reserving the males from the best 
pens to use on the pens of breeders, thus growing stronger in 
quality from season to season until the whole flock is of the 
highest merit, but always going on w'ith the knowledge that it 
costs less to make 7J lbs. on a well-bred male than 7J lbs. on a 
mongrel. 

A. 17. White Wyandottes. 

A. 18. Some years of experience with other breeds 
proved to my satisfaction that in this bird was combined the 
greatest number of good points with the least possible number 
of defects. 

A. 19. White Wyandottes. 

A. 20. For the reason I proved them fourteen years ago 
and thousands have proved them since to be unbeaten as layers, 
this mainly deciding me as to which of the five varieties I was 
breeding to keep. Afterwards a "try out" in brooder house 



50 



STARTING IN THE BUSINESS 



work showed that as broilers and roasters they distanced any- 
thing I had tried, making 2 to 2J pounds in eight weeks. 

A. 21. White Wyandottes. 

A. 22. The market side I have ahead covered, and for 
a fancy bird we have one of the most popular of all the varieties. 
The best specimens are unsurpassed for beauty, grace and sym- 
metry, and while so many are bred the choicest bring as good 
prices as any variety and far more than almost any other, so 
that a ready sale is assured any breeder for good stock. 



TRAP-NEST YOUR HENS 

PUNCH-MARK ALL CHICKS AND 
STUDY THE BIRDS AS THEY GROW 

S. J. McQUILLIANDE, West Hartford, Conn. 

WHITE PLYMOUTH ROCK SPECIALIST 

A. 9. Fowls. 

A. 10. In the first place I would consider them the 
cheapest. Second: I would have a chance to study the young 
stock that I hatched from their eggs as they grow. 

A. 11. Kill them all and sell them for the best price 
obtainable. Start all over again with the variety of pure-breds 
he likes best or what he considers to be the most profitable 
variety for him. 

A. 12. Buy a trio of the variety he is most interested in, 
find out who raises the best of that variety, visit his place if 
possible, see what you are buying, and buy the best you can 
afford — if only two birds, one male and one female. 



A. 13. I would advise a beginner to purchase a pen of 
four females and one male to start with. Trap-nest your hens 
and set the eggs from each hen separately. Punch-mark the 
little chicks when they are hatched. Study your birds as they 
grow. When your birds are matured you will know how to 
mate the following year to produce better results. If you follow 
this system for two or three years you are sure to raise good 
exhibition birds, provided you had first class stock to begin with. 

A. 14. Buy as good a trio as his capital will allow and 
proceed in the same manner as recommended in answer to 
No. 13. 

A. 15. If the beginner possesses some knowledge of the 
poultry business his course will be easy; all he will require is 
a little common sense and good judgment. Would advise visit- 
ing as many of the practical poultry plants as possible in opera- 
tion throughout the country and studying their methods. 

A. 16. Select one variety, the best adapted to your 
market, buy the best your means will allow, cull close every 
year, exhibit as much as possible, do not raise too many to start 
with, study the variety you select, become acquainted with 
others that breed your variety and obtain from them all the 
information possible. 

A. 17. White Plymouth Rocks. 

A. 18. They are good layers, they are handsome to look 
at, they are excellent market fowls and make good broilers. 
The prices paid for them at the show room are as high as any 
other variety. 

A. 19. White Plymouth Rocks. 

A. 20. They grow faster than any other fowl that I 
know of; the cockerels very often go eight pounds in six and one- 
half months. I have had them weigh ten pounds in eight 
months. 




CHAPTER FOUR 



THE POULTRY PLANT 

LOCATION, BUILDINGS AND YARDS 

WHAT IS MEANT BY A GOOD LOCATION— PREFERRED TYPES OF POULTRY BUILDINGS— OPINIONS 
OF FOREMOST BREEDERS AS TO BEST HOUSES FOR BREEDING AND YOUNG STOCK, GIVEN IN A 
POULTRY HOUSE SYMPOSIUM — PROFITABLE INFORMATION FOR BEGINNER AND VETERAN 




N MOST cases the beginner of moderate means will 
find it advisable to locate his first venture in 
the poultry business at his own home, whether 
it be a backyard, town lot or farm. Without 
funds it is usually unwise to launch the enter- 
prise by the purchase of real estate and so tie 
up all the available money in land and buildings, 
A small start is best; you can grow as fast as you please and 
your capital will permit, once you have gained the necessary 
experience. 

Nearly every beginner is employed at other work and he 
had best stick to his salaried job until he lias established him- 
self with poultry, or demonstrated practically his ability or 
inability to do so. The clerk, student or mechanic can usually 
begin in a small way at home and so learn the business in hours 
not devoted to other duties. The professional man will find 
ample employment for his leisure hours in the study and care of 
a small flock on the home place. 

Such beginners will usually find it much to their advan- 
tage to purchase some of the more desirable types of ready- 
made, low-cost portable houses. These buildings are both 
practical and satisfactory, being particularly well adapted to 
rented locations. Even permanent plants on large or small 
farms will find these portable houses very desirable for coloniz- 
ing flocks in the fields, in fact good portable colony buildings, 
large and small, are always convenient and serviceable on any 
poultry plant regardless of size or permancy. The beginner 
with ample means will usually suit himself as to location, choos- 
ing one that pleases his fancy most, but he too will find it wise 
to go slow, make sure his site is a good one and favorable to the 
work in hand, while it will be best to build practical and inex- 
pensive buildings rather than elaborate, costly, more artistic 
structures. 

Poultry may be profitably kept for fancy purposes and to 
supply the family with eggs on a small town lot or in a backyard, 
and there are many paying poultry ventures located on village 
lialf-acre and acre homesteads. To make a living from poultry 
a five-acre farm is small enough and fifteen or twenty acres is 
better, but one man should seldom attempt to operate a farm 
exceeding forty to fifty acres as that is practically as much as 
he can handle to advantage without good, permanent, compe- 
tent, hired help, which labor is scarce and difficult to procure. 
A twenty-acre plant or larger ought to grow a large proportion 
of the food required by the poultry and even on a one-acre place 
the garden should supply the family table and provide an ample 
stock of winter vegetable food for the flock of breeders. 

Any farm or land that will grow good green grass and sup- 
port small fruits and fruit trees will serve also for successful 
poultry keeping. Well drained, light sandy or gravelly loam is 
the best soil. Clay soil is the least desirable and heavy, soggy, 
sticky clay soils are really unfit for satisfactory poultry raising. 
Of all locations a gentle southern slope on well drained rolling 



grass land, lightly wooded, or set with orchard fruits, is the 
most preferable. Shade and sunshine are both desirable. On 
a gentle slope if the buildings and yards are well placed, the 
plant is easily kept clean and the yards practically cleanse 
themselves with each heavy rain. 

Permanent poultry houses should be placed on the higher 
levels of ground, never in the hollows. See that they are so 
located that all surface water in winter and early spring thaws 
and heavy summer rains will drain away from them, and also will 
not settle in the yards or runs. In climates where the winter 
temperature falls to zero or a few degrees above, or where the 
mean annual temperature is 56 degrees Fahrenheit or lower, all 
permanent, poultry buildings should front or face south or a little 
east or south. Runs in such locations should preferably be to 
the south of the building but may be made on both south and 
north sides, if desired. For climates where the mean annual 
temperature exceeds 60 degrees V. houses should face east or a 
little south of east, yards running east and west from front or 
back of house as desired. With fresh-air poultry houses of 
ordinary height from 18 to 28 cubic feet of house air space 
should be allowed per bird. With closed houses of usual height 
of stud from 28 to 40 cubic feet per bird will be required for best 
results. Or in houses of average height allow 5 to 10 square 
feet floor space for each bird in closed houses, and from 4 to 7 
square feet floor space per bird in fresh air quarters. Three 
nests of ordinary dimensions, 14 by 14 by 14 inches each, are 
all that are needed for a flock of 20 layers. Six to eight inches, 
lineal measure, is sufficient space to allow per bird for roost 
room. Roosts should be 16 inches away from back walls of 
houses and from 14 to 16 inches apart measured center to center. 
For breeding stock and layers allow from 65 to 75 square 
feet of yard room or run for each bird in the flock. Growing 
chicks should have liberal or free range after they are a month 
or six weeks old. They can be reared in confinement but it is 
better not to place too close a limit on their range, give them as 
much or more room than you would breeding fowls. See that 
they have plenty of shade and shelters that are easily accessible. 
All yards should be planted to fruit trees like plums, peaches, 
cherries, apples and pears. Blackberry and raspberry bushes 
make ideal shade for growing stock. 

With convenient continuous houses and long narrow yards 
it is estimated that 400 breeding birds can be comfortably housed 
and yarded on one acre of land. One man can properly care for 
1000 breeding fowls and raise from 3000 to 5000 chicks a season 
with suitable conveniences, but he will find his working hours 
pretty well occupied. There are a number of practical poultry- 
men who are doing this and who clean up about $1000 to $2000 
a year profit from their business to pay for their time, labor and 
the interest on their invested capital. During the late winter 
and spring months they lead pretty strenuous fives and work 
long hours. 

On a practical one-man-plant in the busy season it is no 



52 



THE POULTRY PLANT 



uncommon thing for the proprietor to begin work at 4 o'clock 
in the morning and keep at it until bedtime, 9:30 or 10. In 
the summer time, after the early chicks are marketed and the 
coming breeders are sufficiently well grown to need less care and 
attention, he has more time to himself and a practical man we 
know usually puts in his leisure hours building brooders and 
colony coops or renovating, repairing and building houses or 
yards. It sounds like a life of all work and no play, doesn't it? 
Well, it is not as bad as all that, for though the hours are long 
and the work plenty, there are breathing spells between the 
working stunts. 

One of the men we have in mind doesn't forget to play a 
little. He has a fine pleasant home on a nice farm all built and 
paid for by poultry. His buildings are insured for more than 
$4,000 and his dwelling and furnishings for as much more. He 
keeps two horses, two cows, has a fine garden for family use. 
Owns a piano and mechanical player, also a phonograph with 
which he drives away care on winter evenings before making 
the last rounds for the night of the incubators and brooders. 
He has to "keep pretty close to home" as his work is confining 
and may need his personal attention at any time, but he makes 
it a point to take his pleasure at home also. He can't go to 
town to the theatre and his family, a good sized one, prefers to 
keep him company at home, so they have music and vaudeville 
entertainments of their own in the family circle to vary the 
monotony of winter evenings "way back in the country." There 
are many city people who would be glad to change places with 
this poultry farmer. 




A FEEDING PEN FOR CHICKS 

By the use of such a pen mature fowls or large chickens are prevented 
from eating special chick food. The slats are sufficiently far apart so that 
the young chicks can pass in and out of the pen. 

What this man has done through pluck and perseverance 
others can and will do. He started fifteen years or more ago. 
Had always been working in the city, first one job and then 
another with little or no success, an increasing family and the 
usual run of hard luck. When he struck out for the country he 
bought on the installment plan a good sized back country farm 
with buildings good enough to live in. When he moved on the 
place he "had only fifty cents left to his name" and began work- 
ing out and trading off his own labor for necessaries and for 
other help and labor on his home place. He started small witli 
poultry and grew and today though pluck, push and persever- 
ance is the proprietor of a successful poultry plant and has 
money in the bank. He says that all he possesses he owes to 
bis hens. No doubt that is true in part but his own honest 
endeavor, a liking' for the business and good healthful outdoor 
farm work, have all played an important part in his success. 



In this chapter we haven't room for a great variety of 
house plans and building instructions. The latest edition of the 
book Poultry Houses and Fixtures of the R. P. J. series is 
devoted exclusively to that purpose. In it will be found com- 
plete specifications and instructions for building modern de- 
pendable houses for all poultry purposes. There are incubator 
houses, brooder houses, buildings for breeders and layers, colony 
houses and coops and numerous valuable labor saving appli- 
ances. We particularly recommend for study the Hunter 
Scratching-Shed House, the Scratching-Shed Colony House, 
the Maine Experiment Station Curtain Front House, and the 
Tolman Fresh-Air House, all of which are fully described and 
illustrated in Poultry Houses and Fixtures. In this chapter 
we present a few other good buildings that were not included in 
the special house book. 



FRESH-AIR POULTRY HOUSES 

Open-House Method is Tried by an Experi- 
enced, Observant Poultry Student in the 
State of Washington, Who Reports Results 

A MODIFIED FORM OF FRESH-AIR HOUSE IS DE- 
SIGNED, USED AND RECOMMENDED FOR TALL- 
COMBED VARIETIES IN COLD LATITUDES 

H_ HEIDENHA1N, WENATCHEE, WASH. 
(With Illustrations by the Author) 

[Editorial Note: — Following we present Mr. Heidenhain's 
article in which he relates his experience with Leghorns in the 
Tolman type of fresh-air houses and describes the modified 
form of house he found it advisable to build in the cold latitude 
of the state of Washington. The Tolman Fresh-Air House is 
fully described and illustrated in the book Poultry Houses 
and Fixtures of the R. P. J. series. The illustrations and 
descriptive matter are quite complete. It will be noticed that 
Mr. Heidenhain has omitted to describe the construction of 
the double doors used on his modified type of fresh-air poult ry 
house. The photograph, however, shows plainly the con- 
struction of these doors. It is generally known that a square 
poultry house is cheapest in construction, other tilings being 
equal — a strong point in favor of Mr. Heidenhain's type of 
house. Low cost is a strong recommendation for this house 
as it is for any poultry building where profit earning is the 
object. — Ed.] 

OUR EXPERIENCE WITH THE TOLMAN FRESH-AIR POULTRY 
HOUSE 

Last fall when the task was put before us to provide lay- 
ing houses for about 400 hens, we decided to build first two 
houses according to Mr. Tohnan's Fresh-Air House plan. Mr. 
Tolman's reasons for the construction of this style of houses 
seemed to be so sound and the results obtained by Mm were so 
excellent that we thought little risk was involved in following 
his advice, to use the same style of house for Leghorns, although 
his experience was limited to Brahmas. 

The two houses were finished in September and were at 
once filled with pullets and cockerels of different varieties, 
among which the Leghorns took a prominent part. The in- 
ltabitants of these two houses were healthy and happy and 
seemed, at tirst, to stand the great changes of temperature be- 
tween day and night which is characteristic of our climate, 
pretty well. The pullets began to lay in November and the 
egg yield was steadily increasing. We got in the former part 
of December in one of these houses 10 pullets, not all of which 



53 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



had reached maturity, on the average of 12 eggs per day. (The 
other house contained later hatched chickens). Our hopes 
were swelled that we had hit the right plan and that our egg 
yield from this flock soon would become still greater. 

But here we were disappointed. As soon as the weather 
became more severe the egg yield did not even keep its own 
but diminished in an alarming manner. From an average of 
12 eggs during the first third of December we rapidly went 
down, making the average for the second third but eight eggs 
per day. 

The middle of the month liad brought us snow and cold 
nights and we noticed that, the combs of the Leghorn pullets 
not white tips and those of the Leghorn cockerels turned bluish. 

It was not necessary to carry the experiment any further 
at least as far as Leghorns were concerned. As we were short 
of quarters for our birds, we had to leave them in these houses, 
but provided for the fronts muslin doors which could be opened 
the full width of the front, when closed, which hereafter was 



much too small for that number of chickens, which Mr. Tol- 
man recommends to keep in such a house. The area is but 96 
square feet, which gives each fowl only 2 J square feet. Not 
from a theoretical point of view, but from practical observa- 
tion we had come to the conclusion that not less than 4 square 
feet should be allowed to each chicken. 

There are days on which chickens are better off indoors 
than outdoors, no matter how necessary fresh air is for their 
well being. The house, therefore, must have room enough for 
the chickens to move about and to scratch for their food. In 
a house which is overfilled, the chickens stand idle. For the 
phlegmatic Brahmas this may be no hardship; they also keep 
warm by the mere size of their bodies, but the little Leghorns 
soon feel chilly if compelled to idleness on a stormy day. 

Another feature in Mr. Tolman's plan which did not find 
our approval is the depth of the droppings boards, caused by 
the use of the threefold roost. Occasions frequently happen, 
especially in the fall when the weather turns severe, on which 




FRESH AIR POULTRY HOUSES FOR COLD LATITUDES 

To the right in the picture are two Tolman Open-Front Houses. The two square houses, with part canvas and 
part wooden doors, show the Tolntan Houses as modified, used and recommended by H. Heidenhain, Proprietor West 
End Poultry Ranch, VVenatchee, Wash. 



done every night. A 3-inch wide strip over the top of these 
doors was left open to admit fresh air. After these changes 
were made no more combs got frozen, in fact the color of the 
combs of I !»' cockerels soon became blight red again and our 
egg yield increased in spite of the weather becoming still worse. 
The average "I' the last third of December was 15 eggs per day. 

HOW THE PLAN FOR OUR FRESH-AIR HOUSE WAS DEVELOPED 

Dutiim the course of this experiment the question as to 
the style of laying houses best adapted to our climatic con- 
ditions was daily discussed and finally a plan was elaborated 
which seemed to satisfactorily fulfill all requirements. 

It was out of question to follow in future the Tolman 
plan, even in the modified form i. e., with muslin frames in 
front, as, for our purpose at least, the interior arrangement 
was not practical. In the first place we found the floor space 



the chickens must be treated individually. The attendant 
must be enabled by the arrangement of the roosts, to reach 
any single bird without disturbing the rest of the flock. This 
cannot be done with three roosts, as the third one is too far 
away from the front of the droppings boards. To bring the 
roosts closer together would not do, in fact in Mr. Tolman's 
plan the roosts are as close together as admissible, perhaps a 
little too close. Two roosts are all that should be used. 

The wire front in Mr. Tolman's plarr has proved disas- 
trous to the large combs of Leghorns. The house being of 
small size the excitable Leghorns fly right towards the front 
whenever a person enters the house, thereby lacerating their 
combs. Here again it shows that circumstances change con- 
ditions. What is right for the easy going Brahmas will not 
necessarily suit the nervous Leghorns. 

Placing the nests under the droppings boards as is often 
done, also in Mr. Tolman's plan, we do not find practical. Not 



54 



THE POULTRY PLANT 



alone that it reduces the available floor area, but it also gives 
dark corners in which the hens are induced to lay, and one 
has to stoop down and crawl under the droppings boards in 
search for eggs. 

Having observed such defects in the Tolman house we had 
to avoid them in our future plan without sacrificing the fresh 
air feature. 

In the first place we had to decide the number of chick- 
ens to be housed in one house. All experience seems to point 
to a limitation of the flock to 50 head. Taking this as a maxi- 
mum for small breeds, it means about 40 for the largest and 
45 for the medium sized breeds. If we figure for the medium 
sized fowls about 6\ inch and for the largest small breeds like 
Leghorns about 5J inch roosting space, for breeds about 7 inch, 
we arrive in every instance pretty close to the same result 




HEIDENHAINS FRESH-AIR POULTRY HOUSE 

A.— Sectional view showing location of roosts, droppings 
board and nests. 

B. — Plan, giving general dimensions and location of interior 
fixtures. 

i. e., 28 running feet of roosting space. Using two roosts, the 
length of each one would then be 14 feet. Therefore, the house 
must measure in one direction at least 14 feet, if the allowable 
greatest number of chickens are to be put in a single house, 



which, of course, is desirable from an economical point of view. 

As said before, each chicken should have at least 4 square 
feet floor space. That makes for 50 head, 200 square feet. 
If 14 feet is the length of one side of the house, the other side 
is figured to be a little over 14 feet. There would be no harm 
in making the house larger either way or both ways, but on a 
commercial plant like ours, no money can be thrown away 
for dispensable things. 

After discussing and planning the interior for other di- 
mensions, which would give nearly 200 square feet floor area, 
we finally decided on a 14 by 14 foot house, which allowed the 
arrangement of all fixtures in an easy and commodious manner 
and at the same time was the cheapest to build on account of 
its square shape. 

The question whether single houses or houses with scratch- 
ing sheds attached should be chosen, was also thoroughly 
discussed. While the latter are very nice in many ways (we 
have five of such houses in use) they are not cheap, consider- 
ing the number of chickens which can be housed therein. The 
chickens stay either in one or the other compartment. On 
cold nights and on some cold days the doors must be kept 
closed. Suppose the shed is in floor space just as large as the 
house proper, then the chickens have only the benefit of half 
the building. It costs about as much to build the partition 
between the house and the shed as to close the front of the 
shed. Doing this we get a house double the area and double 
the volume of air, which is a decided advantage on occassion 
as before mentioned. 

Now then we had to provide for an abundance of light 
and fresh air. The solution of this problem seems to us is 
given in the use of large doors in front of the building, as shown 
in our plan. 

The question whether shed roof or hip roof was to be used 
was decided in favor of the latter, on account of the size of 
the house and saving of material. By putting the gable side 
to the south we managed to provide for the large doors in front , 
which admit all light and air required. Too much light must 
be avoided in a climate like ours, with almost uninterrupted 
sunshine for 9 months of the year. In our old scratching 
sheds, the chickens do not know where to hide from the rays 
of the sun. 

Undoubtedly the chickens like the open sheds and reluct- 
antly they retire to the roosting room when the sun gets too 
strong. Having observed this we took care to provide for 
shade as well as light in our new plan and made the doors of 
such size, that at any position of the sun, the house gives shady 
corners as well as sunny places. The height of the doors is 
such that the sun sweeps in the course of the day over the 
whole floor except in summer when it is not necessary. 

The roosts we laid against the north wall being the one 
most remote from the front and therefore giving the birds best 
shelter against draft when the doors are left open over night. 

We placed the window on the east side rather than the 
west side as all living beings enjoy the first warming rays of the 
rising sun. 

The v space under the droppings boards we left free and 
placed the nests on shelves in two stories on the west wall. 
Likewise watering trough and grit box are placed over a shelf, 
thus leaving the entire floor space available for the chickens' 
exercise. 

It is of little importance of what material the houses are 
built. Local conditions are deciding in the selection of the 
proper lumber lor walls and the material for the roof. Like 
Mr. Tolman we made it a point to have our houses tight against 
any draft. We lined the walls with heavy water-proof build- 
ing paper on the inside, using shiplap outside, and covered the 
house with good roofing felt. All fancy or decorative work 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



such as corner strips, molding, etc., have been omitted, our 
only object being the comfort of the inhabitants. 

These houses have been in use since December and have 
proved equally serviceable with Plymouth Rocks as with Leg- 
horns. We liave had no frozen combs, although our nights 
in January were pretty cold and the air was damp and chilly 
from the time the chickens were put in until the end of Feb- 



ruary, only a few single days of sunshine interrupting the mono- 
tony of cloudy skies. 

We are satisfied that our poultry houses fulfill the require- 
ments of our climatic conditions, but we hardly think that 
one plan will answer under all conditions. All we can say is- 
Study your climate and your breed and then bmld to suit. 




FRESH-AIR HOUSE INDORSED 

THE TOLMAN TYPE OF FRESH-AIR HOUSE IS THOROUGHLY TESTED AND FOUND 
ADMIRABLY SUITED TO THE NEEDS OF POULTRYMEN IN MIDDLE TENNESSEE- 
MODERATE COST, HF.ALTHFULNESS AND SAVING OF TIME ARE STRONG FEATURES 




B. I . PARSONS 



AVING bad some experience with the Tolman 
Fresh-Air House, I most heartily indorse it, at 
least lor a moderate climate. I have used three 

cif them the pasl winter, in breeding pens, the 
results being far more satisfactory than with 
other kinds previously used. In fact, I am so 
well pleased with the results that hereafter" all new houses I 
build will be of this kind. 

Up to a year ago, I was using the customary tight house 
ventilated as well as safety would permit. Every morning 
when opening the houses, both my sense of smell and common 
sense rebelled. I could not believe that it was healthful for 
anything to breathe Buch foul air, so when the Reliable Poultry 
Journal described the Tolman house, I was an immediate 
convert. I drew my plan, purchased the material and went 
to work. Being somewhat of an amateur carpenter, I did all 
the work myself with the aid of a man of all work. The re- 
sult was so satisfactory and the finished house appealed so to 
my common sense, I went on and built two more. The houses 
cost me $20.00 each for material, rough lumber at $6.00 per 
thousand and flooring at $17.50. The picture herewith, I took 
of one of them. 

I built my houses according to the dimensions given by you 
—14 ft. long, 8 ft. wide, 4 ft. high at front, 6 ft. at rear and 8 
ft. at peak, and for a breeding pen house it is large enough. 
The frame is made of 2 by 4's, two being nailed together for 
the sills, only one-half of each lapping the other, the inside one 



forming a shoulder on which to rest the uprights and fiooi 
joists. A two inch corner is cut out of the ends of floor joists 
so that when they rest upon the shoulder the top comes even 
with the outside of sill. The three sides of house are covered 
with tongue and grooved flooring, the dressed side in, then this 
is covered with a roofing paper and painted, making a thor- 
oughly tight and dry wall and giving a good clean surface in- 
side. The floor is of rough poplar boards fitted closely at all 
sides, this being covered with building paper and then with 
the flooring same as used on sides, making a tight, warm, floor 
and which comes up about two inches above where the sides 
of house join the sills, insuring a dry floor. The roof is of 
rough common lumber, but it would be better to have it edged 
and dressed, covered with roofing paper and held more firmly 
in place by means of J by | strips, all well coated with a good 
roofing paint. The front is enclosed with 1-inch mesh poultry 
wire, in the corner being a small door for the birds to go and 
come. The door is a regular panel house door and the window 
a 12 by 14-8 light, both set in frames made out of 4-inch strips, 
door, sash and frames being painted. 

The house photographed, of which I enclose a print, being 
built in a temporary location, is set right upon the ground, but 
those built at permanent locations are set up on posts and as 
the ground is quite sloping, the front is about three feet higher 
above it than the rear. This allows the air to circulate under- 
neath, gives the birds additional shelter and makes a good place 
for drinking fountains and hoppers. 



56 



THE POULTRY PLANT 



The front part of the house is used for a scraching pen, a 
12-inch board set on edge dividing it from the back part, the 
latter being used for roosts and nests. I use a sloping drop- 
pings board hinged to back of house 2 ft. 6 in. above the floor, 
the front edge overlapping a trough to catch the droppings. 
Every morning it is scraped with a hoe and droppings carried 
away, then by means of rope and pulley is raised out of way 
of nests. These are six in number and trap, and are placed 
under the droppings board. The roosts, two in number, rest 
upon two supports which are hinged to wall at back and rest 
upon legs at front. They are one foot above the board and the 
legs slide upon it when all is raised and lowered together. When 
board is being cleaned, roosts are raised and held by a strip. 

It is all much more simple than it sounds. Only about 
three minutes each morning and again each evening is required 
to put all in order; it is easily cleaned and kept clean; the 
birds always have fresh, wholesome air to breathe; and it 



is a pleasure to keep fine birds under such conditions. 

My birds are Barred Rocks and White Wyandottes and I 
believe that if the youngsters are raised in open front coops 
and gradually hardened, all but the most tender breeds will do 
better in such houses most anywhere in the States. If the 
houses are made as tight as mine are, there can be no drafts and 
I have not seen a sign of dampness although there is such a 
tendency toward it where I live, that it is almost impossible to 
keep free from it in my dwelling. 

Believing that this style of house not only improves the 
quality of a flock, but adds materially to the health and com- 
fort of the birds, I hope many readers will give it a trial. To 
those who do, I would say, make the roof, sides and floor tight ; 
door and window fitting so that a draft through them is im- 
possible; insure a circulation of air under the house; and in 
summer time remove door and window, substituting poul- 
try wire. 





PIANO BOX POULTRY HOUSE 



THE POULTRY PLANT 



CHEAP COLONY HOUSES 

FIVE DOLLAR PIANO BOX HOUSE AND 

> THE DUSTON TEN DOLLAR COLONY 

BREEDING OR BROODER HOUSE 

PIANO BOX HOUSE 

Purchase two good second hand upright piano boxes; they 
can usually be had for $1.50 to $2. each. Buy a six light 8 
by 10 glass window, second hand one will answer, at a cost of 
25 to 50 cents. Two strap hinges, a small roll of tar paper, 
caps and nails, a doorhasp and staple, a soap box for nest and 
a five-foot piece of 2 by 3-inch stuff for a roost, these are the 
other necessaries. All told, the equipment should not exceed $5. 

Place piano boxes back to back 2 feet apart with ends 
south, first removing the backs and tops of both boxes. Draw 
all nails with a nail puller and save them. Use one of the tops 
for the floor between the boxes and the other to close the open 
space between the north ends of two boxes. They will need 
very little fitting. Cut 2 feet off one back to make a door for 
the south end and hang it with the strap hinges to the west box 
to swing west and out, space between south ends of boxes is 
opening closed by this door. Saw out a hole in the lower part 
of south end of east piano box to fit window, 2 feet square is 
right. Fit in the six-light, 8 by 10 glass, window on the inside 
of this hole to slide up 10 inches and then^west^to take out. 
This serves for window and chick door. 




PIANO BOX COLONY HOUSE 

To make'roof saw one of the boards, 6 feet long and 8 inches 
wide, found in all piano boxes, diagonally from one corner 
lengthwise to opposite comer. Nail one of these triangular 
pieces to north end, butt of wedge (8 inch end) to east and one 
to south end butt of wedge to east — this gives a pitch for your 
roof. Make roof of the balance of backs and make it tight. 
Use roofing paper or tar paper to cover slope of east box, entire 
roof and all of west side; batten it on with laths if location i* very 
windy, otherwise the tin caps and nails will be all that are need- 
ed. Roost should be placed in west box two feet from floor. 
Soap box filled with straw serves as nest box. This house will 
serve as quarters for half a dozen breeding birds or will make 
an excellent brood house for two sitting hens, and will care for 
them ami their Hocks to maturity. 

DUSTON COLONY HOUSE 

The house herein described was designed' by Arthur G. 
Dust on, White Wyandotte specialist. This house is 10 feet 



long and 5 feet wide, 5 feet 3$ inches high in front, and 4 feet 
2 inches in the back. A large double window furnishes light. 
It is placed low in the house, one foot from the board floor. 
When the door is open, the sun shines in as though it were an 
open shed. The door is 2 feet 6 inches, by 4 feet 6 inches and 
is made in two sections. The inner section is hinged to the 
outer, thus making a door within a door. The opening in the 
door proper is covered with one inch mesh wire netting. This 
permits of the opening of the panel door. In winter, except 
in stormy weather, this outside door is left open all day. When 
closed, the building is tight and warm. The first year there 
is no need of papering the sides, but after that the openings from 
shrinkage make drafts, which, of course, the birds cannot stand. 
The roof is covered with any good roofing fabric. This colony 
house is built of 2 by 3 inch studding and J inch matched stock. 

MATERIAL REQUIRED 



This house is 10 ft. long by 5 ft. wide, inside measure. 
It requires 230 ft. matched stock and 118 ft. 2 by 3 stock as 
follows : 

Three side sills 2 by 3s 10 ft.; two end sills 2 by 3s 5 ft. 
Halve (rabbeted joint) sills together. 

Two side plates 2 by 3s 10 ft.; two end plates 1 by 3s .5 ft. 
1J in. Set end plates even with top of side plates. Set all 
2 by 3 pieces edgewise. 

Three front posts 2 by 3s 4 ft. 9 in.; two back posts 2 by 3s 
8 ft. Frame sills and lay floor, then set posts on top of floor 
and under plates. ' 

Boarding on front 5 ft. 3| in. long; boarding on back 4 ft. 
2 in. long; boarding on roof 5 ft. 8 in. long. 

Two 2 by 4s 10 ft. shoes, spiked under sills. 

One 2 by 4, 10 ft. roosts. 

One 12-light window sash, 12 inches above floor. 

One 1J by 2, 14 ft., cut to go above sash. 

One door 2 ft. 6 in. by 4 ft. 6 in. 

One door (small), 1 ft. 10 in. by 3 ft. 9 in. 

Two 2i in. hooks and eyes. 

Two pair 3 in. strap hinges. 

Approximate cost 810. 

The house is built on two pieces of 2 by 4 in. stuff, rounded 
at the ends. A work horse can haul one of these houses all 
over the farm. Anyone can hang three or four foot wire netting 
on stakes driven in the ground and in a few minutes have a 
house and yard ready for occupancy. 

This colony house makes an admirable building for a pen 
of fine breeding birds or ten or a dozen layers. It is also well 
adapted for use as a brooding house for hens with chicks or for 
an individual indoor broodsr. For colonizing growing chicks in 
flocks of thirty to fiftv. 




*v*m 



A. G. DUSTONS PRACTICAL COLONY HOLSK 



5!) 



POULTRY HOUSE SYMPOSIUM 

PROMINENT POULTRYMEN GIVE THEIR OPINIONS ON POULTRY BUILDINGS— COLONY HOUSES 
RECOMMENDED FOR POULTRY OF ALL AGES AND PARTICULARLY FOR YOUNG STOCK 



In this symposium a number of the leading American 
breeders express their opinions concerning the preferred styles 
of poultry houses. The following questions were sent out to a 
large number of breeders all over the country: 

Q. 23. What style of house do you prefer, as a fancier, 
for breeding stock? 

Q. 24. What style of house for young stock? 

Q. 25. Do you favor the colony plan for housing young 
stock? 

Q 26. If so, what style of colony house do you use? 

The answers to these questions will be found under the 
name of each breeder making a reply, and each answer is given 
the same number as the question asked. Study and comparison 
of these answers will prove exceedingly interesting to those who 
contemplate erecting poultry buildings. The answers are given 
briefly and get right down to business without any waste of 
words. 

Many of the poultry buildings herein recommended,notably 
the A. F. Hunter scratching shed house, the fresh-air colony 
house, apex or A shaped house, and small colony houses, are 
described and fully illutrated in the bi><>k <>f the H. P. J. series 
entitled Poultry Houses and Fixtures, in which book com- 
plete information as to specifications and building instructions 
is given in detail, so tli.it any person who is at all familiar with 
the use iif carpenter's \,„>\- can easily erect such buildings as 
lie may desire. 



I. K. FELCH, Natick, Mass. 

BREEDER OF LIGHT BRAHMAS. WHITE WYANDOTTES. BARRED AND 
WHITE PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

.4. 23. A two-story house; birds learn to go up and 
down stairs. The yards can be planned to cover the greatest 
number of feet, with the least cost for fencing, and the flock 
cared for with the least labor, 

A. 24. Colonize the young stock where they can have the 
greatest liberty to glean from the fields the slugs, insects and 
worms. Keep no more than 25 to 40 in these small houses, 
placing the houses as far as possible in shaded retreats. 

A. 25. Yes. I colonize my standard-bred stock and give 
them the liberty of the farm. 

A. 26. .Most anything does for colonizing chicks; abso- 
lute free air open sheds. If a chicken lives practically in the 
open air until the middle of October, it is best to get them into 
winter quarters before the frosty nights come. Plan for free 
ventilation of the winter houses. 



A. C. HAWKINS, Lancaster, Mass.- 

WHITE. BUFF AND BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS, SILVER. 
BUFF AND WHITE WYANDOTTES 

A. 23. I prefer a house with shed attached or a house 
with open shed underneath, so that the fowls can have exercise 
in the open air in all kinds of weather. 

A. 24. For young stock I prefer a colony coop 4 by 8 ft. 
with floor and covered with A-inch mesh wire netting. I put 



fifty chicks with four hens in such a coop and leave the chicks 
there until matured. 

A. 25. Yes. 

A. 26. A coop 4 by 8 feet, 3 feet high in front and 2 J 
feet in rear, boarded on back and ends with J-inch mesh wire 
in front. 



J. C. FISHEL & SON, Hope, Ind. 

WHITE WYANDOTTES 

A. 23. Colony house with large yards, plenty of shade, 
and set well in blue grass; never put in so many birds as to ruin 
the growth of the grass. 

A. 24. Same style, not too many in house and yard. 

A. 25. To some extent, only let them have free range. 

A. 26. Simply a shed-roof house about S by 10 or 12 feet 
according to the flock, but be careful not to crowd; there is 
where so many make a mistake. 



W. W. KULP, Pottstown, Pa. 

S. C. AND R. C. WHITE AND BROWN LEGHORNS, WHITE WYANDOTTES, 
BUFF AND BARRED ROCKS AND PEKIN DUCKS 

A. 23. I prefer a very good and handy house but use 
common ones. I prefer a house with a scratching shed, as the 
fowls like the open air. Any kind of a plain room cannot be 
improved on with the sides double, and enough windows to 
light it well. An alleyway makes the feeding and watering 
simpler but makes the room smaller or causes more expense. 

A. 24. All my houses are plain shed roof houses, most of 
them alone in a yard. This is of great benefit to the birds but 
adds to the labor. 

A. 25. I like the young to have all the room possible to 
range. 



ALBERT F. DIKEMAN, So. Peabody, Mass. 

WHITE WYANDOTTES AND WHITE PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

.4. 23. Shed roof, low at back. Absolutely wind and 
weather proof at back, ends and roof; high enough in front to 
allow sun to penetrate to back wall; pens twelve feet deep and 
ten feet wide. Two window openings in each pen (in front), 
one filled with a frame, this being covered with coarse burlap, 
the other to contain two sash (6 lights each) 10 by 13 inches; 
top sash hinged at top to swing out, thus keeping out both snow 
and rain. All fixtures, except dropboards, removable, and all 
easily cleaned. 

.4. 24. Open front colony house with hinged hood in 
front, arranged to turn back on bright days and to fit any 
desired slant at other times. Floor 5 by 8 feet, back three 
feet high, front five feet; front tight boarded from floor up 
2 feet. 

A. 25. Most emphatically. 

A. 26. Fully answered in 24. 



60 



THE POULTRY PLANT 



ROWLAND G. BUFFINTON, Somerset, Mass 

BUFF, SILVER PENCILED AND COLUMBIAN WYANDOTTES, BUFF AND PART- 
RIDGE PLYMOUTH ROCKS, BUFF ORPINGTONS, R. I. REDS, BUFF, 
BLACK, WHITE AND PARTRIDGE COCHIN BANTAMS 

A. 23. Colony houses have given us the best results, 
having tried houses 200 feet long and cut them up for the colony 
plan. Conditions are changing; we need houses to save labor 
and have in mind plans for a 200 hen house for one flock. 

A. 24. We find nearly all of the chicken colony houses 
suitable for the purpose. 

A. 25. Yes. 

A. 26. Piano boxes placed on the side and roof raised to 
make one pitch. 

' W. B. CANDEE, De Witte, N. Y. 

WHITE WYANDOTTES 

A. 23. Long house, not less than 18 or 20 feet wide; 
alley on north side, pens in south. Separate yards for each 
pen. 

A. 24. Colony houses for young stock with free range, 
house to be 6 feet square, shed roof 5£ feet high in front and 
4 feet in back, sides of matched stuff, paper roof, door in front 
2 feet wide, chick slide about 8 by 10 in window, 6 light 8 by 10, 
window hinged at top to swing in, opening covered on outside 
with 1-inch wire mesh netting. 

A. 25. Yes, after the chicks have been kept in the 
nursery brooder for at least six weeks. 



J. H. JACKSON, Hudson, Mass. 

WHITE WYANDOTTES 

A. 23. I prefer a one slant roof high enough in front to 
walk through; slant to about 5 feet in rear, face south if possible. 
No rear walk, go right through pens; the birds are not so wild 
being among them, a good point in breeding fancy or show fowls. 

A. 24. On colony plan that would hold about 30 to 
maturity. 

A. 25. Yes. 

A. 26. A slant roof, from size of a dry goods box to 10 
feet in length. 



W. R. CURTISS & CO., Ransomville, N. Y. 

WHITE WYANDOTTES, S. C. WHITE LEGHORNS AND 
MAMMOTH PEKIN DUCKS 

.4. 23. We prefer colony houses and lots of range. 

.4. 24. Pipe system for starter; transfer to colony house 
on range. 

A. 25. Yes. 

A. 26. We use Apex house 6 by 8, on skids to move 
easily. 



WILBER BROS., Petros, Tenn. 

S. C. WHITE LEGHORNS 

A. 23. We use and much prefer, especially in the south 
where our winters are mild and summers warm, the open-front 
scratching shed style. Probably this style of house would not 
suit the northern or eastern breeders in their deep snows and 
zero weather. It gives great satisfaction south where the 
winters are mild and deep snows seldom seen, and birds can be 
on ground most every day in the year. 



A. 24. For young growing stock we prefer and use 
movable houses made of light wood and often piano boxes or 
large dry goods boxes, well covered and ventilated, that we can 
move often from place to place that birds may have new range. 

A. 25. We certainly approve and use colony houses for 
young stock. 

A. 26. We make our colony houses, as answered in a 
previous question. 



WILLOW BROOK FARM, W. L. DAVIS, 
Berlin, Conn. 

S. C. BUFF. BLACK AND WHITE ORPINGTONS 

A. 23. I consider a colony house preferable for breeding, 
especially for fancy stock, with plenty of room and green runs 
continually. 

A. 24. I like the style of house that we build ourselves 
here at Willow Brook Farm. 

A. 25. Colony houses for young stock is the proper 
method. We use them exclusively at our farm, and have met 
with the best of results. 

A. 26. We use a small 3 by 6 foot shed-roofed colony 
house. We generally plan to have about 15 to 20 birds in 
each house. 



THOMAS F. RIGG, Iowa Falls, Iowa. 

HOUDANS AND WHITE WYANDOTTES 

A. 23. Detached houses, each with roosting pen and 
scratching shed; three to four feet between ceiling joist and roof, 
this space filled in with oat straw. In such a house there can be 
no frost or dampness. Air will be pure and fowls healthy. 
Never again will I have a closed ceiling in a poultry house. 

A. 24. Roomy colony houses. 

A. 25. Yes. 

A. 26. Shed-roof building 12 by 16 feet, facing east. 
Our prevailing winds and storms are from the south-west in 
the summer and fall and spring. 



H. J. BLANCHARD, Groton, N. Y. 

S. C. WHITE LEGHORNS 

.4. 23. Colony plan, double slant third pitch roof with 
straw loft system of ventilation in gable, warmly built and 
supplied with glass windows and also muslin covered frames to 
slide in the opening in place of the glass windows when wanted 
for ventilation. Also prefer board floors. With this style 
house the birds can be kept comfortable in extremely cold as 
well as in mild weather. 

.4. 24. Colony plan 12 by 20, double slant tliird pitch 
roof, board floor. Two windows, 6 lights 9 by 13 in south side, 
door 40 inches wide in each end at smith side, opening outward, 
also slatted doors at same opening swinging inward, for addi- 
tional ventilation in lint weather. 

A. 25. I do. 

.4. 26. Described in 24. 



O. E. SKINNER, Columbus, Kansas 

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS, BIFF AND PARTRIDGE COCHINS 

.1. 23. 1 use an inexpensive house on the isolated plan. 

1 have one house on the collective plan, 102 feet long, but ray 
isolated (colony) houses give me the best results. My breeding 
pens are 8 by 10 with scratching shed. For young stock S 



61 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



by 16. These houses have one slant to roof, 7 feet high on 
south and 3i on north, 14 feet ship-lap cuts without waste. 
Door on south side at east corner, windows just west of door. 
Roosts to the west end all on a level 14 inches from the ground. 
A small window in center of east end above scratching shed 
roof. Scratching shed on east end of building with small open- 
ing closed with slide. 

A. 24. As above, after old enough to take from brooder. 

A. 25. Yes. 

A. 26. I use the same houses that they live in through 
fall and winter, having scratching sheds attached forbad weather. 



EDW. KNAPP, KNAPP BROS., Fabius, N. Y. 

S. C. WHITE LEGHORNS 

A. 2.3. A continuous house with glass, wood and cloth 
front, so constructed as to give plenty of light and ventilation. 
Much tees work, ami business can be better managed in early 
spring. 

A. 21. We prefer the colony house plan. 

A. 25. We do. 

A. 26. A movable, well lighted and ventilated, cheaply 
constructed building, S by 16, shed roof, good height on front 
side. 



J. W. PARKS, Altoona, Pa. 

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

A. 23. The A. K. Hunter "Open-Front." We make ours 
in pairs, in other words, we make our frame 10 by 38. We divide 
this in the center and have two compartments 10 by 19. We 
again divide each compartment, and have a roosting room 10 
by 9 and a scratching shed 10 by 10. We place our roosting 




AN ENGLISH TYPE OF PORTABLE HOUSE 



nights and stormy days. We also have a muslin door between 
roosting room and scratching shed which we close during zero 
weather. 

A. 24. Sled runner colony house. 

A. 25. We have raised chickens with almost every style 
of coops and have settled down to the colony houses. 

A. 26. We use the sled runner colony house. They are 
built on three 3 by 6 inch joists, and the ends of the 3 by 6 
pieces are sawed off like a sled runner. We make our houses 
6 by 7 feet floor and 6 feet high in front, and 4 feet high in back. 
We make them out of matched lumber, and have double floors, 
with a window and door in front. We place our brooders in 
them in the early spring, and move them around with a horse 
each two weeks even if it is only the length of the house, as by 
doing that we keep our grass from getting killed. 



U. R. FISHEL, Hope, Ind. 

WHITE PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

A. 23. Colony house 8 by 24 with roosting room 8 by 12 
and scratching shed 8 by 12. Double wall with curtain front. 
A splendid house at little expense. 

A. 24. We use piano box colony house 5 by 10 feet, 
made out of two piano boxes at cost of $7. 

A . 25. To be sure. 

A. 26. 5 by 10 feet, made of piano boxes. 



ARTHUR G. DUSTON, So. Framingham, Mass. 

WHITE WYANDOTTES 

A. 23. A fairly substantial building is always needed 
but all filagree is unnecessary and I would never build over a 
50 foot building. I like a double pitch roof, a door and window 
in each pen to allow ample ventilation and all the sun possible. 

A. 24. I am using a colony coop 10 by 5 feet, shed roof, 
but were I to build more, would make them 10 by 6 feet, as a 
little more depth is preferable even if the house was shortened 
somewhat. 

A. 25. Yes, if yarded, but find that where used and 
houses not far enough apart the different sizes will get mixed 
and all kinds of trouble ensue. 

A. 26. Yes. 10 by 5 feet, 4 feet high in rear and 5 feet 
front. One outside window let down for light. Ten years with 
this style of house has proven one of the best houses I have, 
and has been copied by hundreds with entire satisfaction to 
them. 



F. C. SHEPARD, Toledo, Ohio 

BUFF PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

A.T 23. Plain shed roof with dirt floor; drop curtain, 
roost cover; muslin doors and windows. 
A. 24. Same. 
A. 25. Yes. 
A. 26. Piano boxes with wire screens and muslin front. 



rooms in the center, and have our scratching sheds on each end. 
We place our nests, roosts, water table and male bird cage in 
the roosting room, and in the scratching shed we have our dust 
box, dry mash hoppers, grits, etc. We have our houses 7 feet 
high in front and 5 feet in rear with a two-foot projection in 
front of house, so as to leave a dry place for chickens and at- 
tendant. We have a 3 by 5 window in our roosting room, and 
a 3 by 7 open front in our scratching shed. We of course have 
muslin curtains to let down over the open front during cold 



AUG. D. ARNOLD, Dillsburg, Pa. 

COLUMBIAN WYANDOTTES 

A. 23. I prefer a house with open front for summer and 
muslin front for real cold weather; too warm housing is the 
greatest cause of disease. Scratching sheds separate from the 
roosting apartments are very desirable. 

A. 24. Houses with open fronts without roosts until 



62 



THE POULTRY PLANT 



birds are nearly grown; these houses so arranged that when signs 
of cold rains in the fall are apparent the chicks can be kept 
inside till the rains are over.. 

A. 25. I favor it, but do not use it as most of my birds are 
raised on farms. 



GARDNER & DUNNING, Auburn, N. Y. 



A. 
A. 
chicks. 
A. 
A. 



BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

23. Colony houses large enough for one dozen fowls. 

24. Colony house large enough for 25 half-grown 

25. Yes. 

26. For young stock house 5 by 8 feet, wire front in 



which muslin curtains can be used in cold weather. 



A. OBERNDORF, Centralia, Kansas 

S. C, WHITE LEGHORNS AND BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

A. 23. The open shed. ■ . 

A. 24. Colony houses 3 \ by 6£ feet floor space, 2 feet 
high in back, 3 feet high in front, well ventilated. 
A. 25. Yes. 
A. 26. Answered in 24. 



E. B. THOMPSON, Amenia, N. Y. 

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

A. 23. Long houses with alleyway are most convenient 
and my choice. Small houses for a breeding pen do well placed 
in a^large yard. 

A. 24. I use colony houses till birds are put in large 
winter quarters. 

A. 25. Yes. 

A. 26. Single house. 

MRS. TILLA LEACH, Cheneyville, 111. 

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

A. 23. The "Hunter Scratching Shed House" with door 
between roosting room and shed always open. 

A. 24. Open front roosting coops about 4 by 6 feet. 

GEO. H. BIE, Racine, Wis. 

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

A. 25. Yes, I favor the colony plan. 
A. 26. My colony houses are 6 by 6 floor space, 5 feet 
high in front, 3 feet in rear, with double doors in front. 

ROSEDALE POULTRY FARM CO., 

Greenwood, Mass. 

WHITE WYANDOTTES 

A. 23. Portable houses 6 feet front by 8 feet side on 
ground, 6 J feet high at the front with one door opening into 
yard, and window with small burlap frame above window for 
ventilation during cold weather; 41 feet high at back. Door 
andjwiudow open at all times, except extremely cold or stormy 
weather. Long laying houses 10 by 10 sections, 6$ feet at 
front, 4J feet at back. One window and one door in front 
opening into yard, ventilated with burlap frame as above. 



A. 24. Portable houses as above described. 

A. 25. Yes. 

A. 26. Portable houses as previously described. 

FRANK D. HAM, Livingstone, N. Y. 

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

A. 23. Long house divided into pens 10 by 10 with alley 
on north side and a good sized window on south side of each pen. 
A. 24. Small house to hold 50 to 75 birds. 
A. 25. Yes. 



W. S. HARRIS, Mansfield, Mass. 

RHODE ISLAND REDS 

A. 23. If he has]only a few acres, long houses. 
A. 24. Houses about 10 feet square. 
A. 25. I prefer it when one lias plenty of land. 
A. 26. I have some 8 by 8; most of my houses are of 
the long type. 



WM. BYWATERS, Camden Point, Mo. 

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

A. 24. I keep little chicks in brood coops till they out- 
grow them, then they are placed in colony houses of any con- 
venient pattern till sold for breeders or moved into winter 
quarters. 

A. 25. I do. 



C. H. WELLES, Stratford, Conn. 

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

A. 23. I like the houses with cloth or curtain front facing 
the south. These are the best ventilated and birds do the 
best in these houses with more even temperature. The cloth 
front allows the moisture to escape, keeping the house dry at 
all times and more birds can be housed in a building of this kind. 

A. 24. I would use same as above. 

A. 25 I don't favor a small house; birds need to be active 
and have plenty of room to work in. 

A. 26. Am using small -colony houses now. 



J. C. MACOMBER, Reading, Mass. 

PARTRIDGE WYANDOTTES AND BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

A. 23. My breeding house is 165 feet long, 12 feet wide, 
containing IS pens. These pens are S by 12. The back of the 
house is 5 feet high and the front 7 feet with a window and a 
door in each pen, the door opening into the yard. There is also 
a door from one pen to the other following right up through 
the house. There is no floor in the house, but sand is kept to 
the depth of 6 to S inches with straw and hay above this. Each 
pen is boarded up tight, so that there will be no draft as is the 
case with wire partitions in a long house. The droppings boards 
are 18 inches from the top of the sand and the roosts far enough 
apart so that it is impossible for the birds to rub their tails 
and wear them out against the back of I he house, or against 
each other. 

A. 24. After taking the young stock out of the brooder 
house, they are put in colony houses, 6 feet wide, S feet long, 
4 feet high in the back and 6 feet in front. No floor excepting 



63 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



sand and no opening except the front. In the front are two 
doors. Each one has a frame covered with cotton cloth. On 
the outside over one of these doors is fine chicken wire so the 
door may be left open nights while the larger door is closed. 
During the day time, both doors are left open unless it is desired 
to keep the chickens inside. 

A. 25. I do. 

.4. 26. Answered under 24. 



F. J. WEHRMEYER, Benton Harbor, Mich. 

WHITE WYANDOTTES 

.4. 23. Prefer a building (such as we use) which gives 
plenty of fresh air, using curtain front and one in which the 
attendant as well as owner must be among the birds while feed- 
ing, etc. This accustoms them to being handled, etc., which 
does not hurt them, and visitors or prospective buyers enjoy 
being among them (rather than viewing them through bars or 
netting); it affords everybody more pleasure. 

.1. 24. Indoors until warm days and then out in any- 
thing comfortable and under control of attendant in case of 
bad weather. If incubator hatched, then indoor brooders with 
outdoor runs until warm enough to place out in colony small 
coops or houses. 

.4. 25. Yes. 

.4. 26. Not always what we'd like to use. Our idea and 
what we are aming to use is a large enough box or house on 
runners moved from place to place and removable yard surround- 
ing. We have some. Our other idea is to have permanent 
building with double run so as to keep one green all the time. 
This suits us. The main idea with us is to use something where 
the stock can remain from beginning to maturity. 



DR. O. P. BENNETT, Mazon, 111. 

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

.1. 23. I prefer a plain south front house about 16 feet 
wide and not over 72 feet long, lined with two-ply tarred felt. 

A. 24. The colony houses that can be moved about. 

A. 25. Yes. 

.1. 26. A small house S by 10 feet where chicks can be 
put with hen, and used afterwards for roosting coops. 



C. BRICAULT, M. D. V., Andover, Mass. 

WHITE WYANDOTTES 

.4. 23. A house of my own building called the new idea 
poultry house, with large doors and windows in the south front 
of eacli pen. 

.4. 24. Individual houses 6 feet by 8 feet, 6 feet high in 
front, 3 feet in rear, with large door and window in south front. 
These can be hauled anywhere on the farm, when wanted. 

.4. 25. Yes. 

A. 26. Described in 24. 



J. H. DOANE, Gouverneur, N. Y. 

S. C. BLACK MINORCAS AND WHITE WYANDOTTES 

.4. 23. The continuous house with long runs, a plenty of 
shade on an elevated position. Would not have an alleyway, 
unless houses were over 10 sections in length, (for cold climate) 



as there is just so much more room to be made and kept warm 
by the birds. 

.4. 24. The colony house by all means, set well apart 
with shade in abundance if possible. A shady pasture is an 
ideal spot for young stock. 

A. 25. As stated above, the colony plan can not be im- 
proved upon. 

A. 26. A cheaply built house with tight sides except 
facing south and an absolute water-proof roof. The piano box 
style of house is ideal. 



FRANK McGRANN, Lancaster, Pa. 

S. C. BLACK MINORCAS, BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS. WHITE 
WYANDOTTES AND S. C. WHITE LEGHORNS 

.4. 23. Single house about S by 10 feet, 7 feet high in 
front and 5 feet high in back. Such a house will accommodate 
eight to fifteen birds according to the variety which one selects 
to breed. 

.4. 24. About the same style of house described in my 
answer to question 23. 

.4. 2.5. Yes. 

.4. 26. One about 6 by 7 feet, 6 feet high in front and 
4 feet high in back. Use hover with lamp and remove when 
chicks are about six to eight weeks old according to the season 
of the year. 



W. D. HOLTERMAN, Ft. Wayne, Ind. 

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

.1 . 23. I prefer the house I now have. This house is 
practically round (12 cornered) with yards radiating in the shape 
of a wheel in all directions. The diameter is 45 feet. The feed- 
room is in the center, 15 feet in diameter. Over the feed-room 
is a dome which cor. tains six windows for additional light and 
ventilation. Every one of the twelve pens contains 120 square 
feet of surface and each has one four-light window. Reasons: 
Great saving in labor (feeding, watering, cleaning); more com- 
pact in every way; all birds under a persons' eyes at once; in 
extremely cold weather can be easily warmed by stove in the 
center so that birds will not freeze their combs; appearance of 
such a building is more artistic than the others. 

.4. 24. Movable colony houses, each to house not more 
than twenty-five head. 

.4. 25. Yes. 

A. 26. The so-called piano-box house. 



H. E. BENEDICT, Horseheads, N. Y. 

BUFF PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

.4. 23. I prefer a house with an open shed facing the 
south; house to have a floor, roosts with droppings boards, nests, 
etc., shed to be filled in with cinder or gravel about a foot above 
the surrounding groimd. A drop curtain in front to keep out 
snow when the wind is in south; put in a foot of straw and change 
if it gets damp. 

A . 24. Colony houses until large enough to put in the 
regular breeding houses. 

.4. 25. I do. 

A. 26. Most any kind will do until the cold storms come 
on in the fall. They want to be good enough to keep them out 
of the rain and wind, and so you can shut them up nights if 
you want to. 



64 



POULTRY HOUSE PLANT 



A. B. TODD, Vermillion, Ohio 

S. C. WHITE LEGHORNS 

A. 23. I prefer a house 8 by 10 feet, 4J feet high at the 
back, 6J feet in front, with removable droppings board 2 feet 
from floor, with drop curtain in front of same, with a 2 by 4 
foot window, and with frame to fit same covered with water- 
proof sheeting. 

A. 24. For young stock or growing chicks I prefer same 
style house as above described, with droppings board removed 
until chicks are old enough to roost on perches. 

A. 25. Yes. 

A. ■ 26. Same style as described in A. 23 and 24. 



A. 24. We use the small colony houses, taking a box 
3 by 4 walled up tight all but in front, and we use a slat door 
with wire on the inside opening and a good tight roof; build the 
box up six inches from ground with good flow, so as to keep dry 
and warm. 

A. 25. Yes, we favor the colony houses for young stock 
as we get far better results, as overcrowding is the cause of so 
many failures and the loss of so many young chicks. 

A. 26. We use the plan of coops as described above and 
make them 3 by 4, placing 25 chicks to a coop and six coops 
to an acre lot. 



CHAS. E. VASS, Washington, N. J. 

S. C. AND R. C. BUFF ORPINGTONS AND S. C. WHITE AND 
BLACK ORPINGTONS 

A. 23. I prefer houses not over 30 feet in length, 10 or 
12 feet wide, divided in three sections; they will always be easily 
cleaned and free from disease, the length not allowing much 
draft. 

A. 24. Colony 6 by 8 feet with open front, in order to 
have fresh air in the hot summer nights; good idea is wire fronts 
to protect chicks from vermin. 

A 25. We certainly do. Poultry will not thrive if 
allowed to run together in large flocks. 



BRADLEY BROS., Lee, Mass. 

' BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

A. 23. Shed and closed house, hallway, a long building; 
not too many cubic feet above 5 feet high. Not much glass. 
Good ventilation. 

A. 24. Similar to A. 23. Plenty air, tight except front; 
around floor boarded tight; 3 feet high from floor, air space 
above that. 

A. 25. Yes. 

A. 26. Shed beneath, roosting room above, which is 
boarded half way up from its floor, then wire front, and swing 
doors which when open make it still more of an open shed. A 
window or a little glass in these would be a benefit. 



G. W. BROWN, Camden, Arkansas 

WHITE WYANDOTTES, BARRED ROCKS, INDIAN GAMES, BUFF COCHINS, 

LIGHT BRAHMAS, LEGHORNS, PIT GAMES, WILD 

AND BRONZE TURKEYS 

.4. 23. I have experimented with dozens of houses, try- 
ing the open and closed, as well as artificially heated houses, 
but as my experience has been confined only to the south, I 
say beyond any doubt the best houses for the south are open, 
well ventilated houses; in fact, we let our houses face south and 
the north, east and west sides are walled up tight, with a large 
glass window in the south; this window is kept wide open all 
the year round, with a few exceptions, and over the opening we 
use wire netting. We found that the closed tight houses in 
damp weather would give our birds colds and roup, for while 
they would be all right hi dry, warm weather, when turned out 
of this warm house on cold, wet, damp days, it would throw 
them all off their feed; but with the open fresh air, tliey become 
accustomed to the changes on the outside and keep in the very 
best health. 



B. S. HUME, French Village, 111. 

WHITE WYANDOTTES 

A. 23. My style of house would be 16 to 20 feet wide and 
any length you desire; 6 feet high on sides and sloped from the 
center each way about one foot fall. This house should be built 
on a southern slope, with glass front facing the south, with 
north wall made of cinderoid; this is made of one part cement, 
three parts sand, and five parts cinders. Mix thoroughly and 
wet before using. A three-foot hallway next to the cinderoid 
wall the whole length of the builhing, then divide the house up 
into pens to suit. 

A. 24. Something similar to the above 

A. 25. I certainly do. 

A. 26. Take old piano boxes and saw them through, and 
each box will make two colony coops large enough for 40 chicks 
as large as grown quails. 



N. V. FOGG, Mt. Sterling, Ky. 

S. C. WHITE LEGHORNS 

A. 23. For breeding stock I use a house 10 feet wide and 
12 feet long, 7 feet high in front and 5 feet in rear, for each 
breeding pen of one cock and 15 hens. This gives them plenty 
of room. I also use a continuous house with pen 6 by 8 feet 
for scratching shed and one 6 by 8 feet for roosting and laying 
room for each breeding pen of one cock and 15 hens; both have 
given good results. These houses are built with barn siding 
and then covered with a good quality of roofing paper; the 
sides and ends are also covered with the same paper and all kept 
well painted. For windows in these houses I use glass, just 
an ordinary sized window, and then on the inside I have a 
frame covered with heavy canvas which is dropped down at 
night over the window. 

A. 24. If one has a good range I would prefer the colony 
plan. 

A. 25. I use a house about 3 feet by 6 feet, 3 feet high 
in front and 2 feet rear, when clucks are first taken from the 
brooder. These houses are built warm and in front are made 
so as to give plenty of fresh air at all times. Do not place over 
25 or 30 young birds in these houses and you will have fine birds 
for winter quarters, if they have the right kind of feed. 



EDW. E. LING, So. Portland. Mo. 

WHITE WYANDOTTES 

.1. 23. Scratching shed house. 

A. 24. Movable colony house. 

.1. 25. Yes. 

.1. 26. One that can W readily moved. 



65 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



GEO. A. BARROWS, Groton, N. Y. 

S. C. WHITE LEGHORNS 

A. 23. I prefer a double wall house 16 by 40, with a 
straw loft, divided into pens 10 by 16 feet with roosts and nests 
along the inside partitions of the house. 

A. 24. I prefer a shed roof house 6 feet by 8 feet in size 
and 5 feet high on the back and 7 feet on the front. These 
houses are built on runners so that I can draw them anywhere 
I wish. 

A. 25. Yes. 

A. 26. Answered in 24. 

H. H. FIKE, Libertyville, 111. 

WHITE WVANDOTTES 

A. 25. Yes. 

A. 26. House facing north, size 6 by S with floor, window 
on south, door on north, also 6 by 1$ feet ventilator on north; 
with board flap to prevent rain from beating in. 

J. L. JEFFERSON, Des Plaines, 111. 

WHITE PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

A. 23. A well-built house with upper half of window 
sash made on a frame to raise and lower, and if you have single 
comb birds use a hooded roost. 

A. 24. Single boarded colony house that can be well 
ventilated below the roosts. A house with no sides, nothing 
but roof, makes the best house for the warm months. 

A. 25. I use the colony house entirely, placing a brooder 
in each house; when the chicks are old enough the brooder is 
removed, and the chicks have the house. 

A. 26. A house about 6 by 8 with a large window in 
south, that can be removed lata on and wire netting used. 



D. F. PALMER & SON, Yorkville, 111. 



BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

About 14 by 40 feet, with five yards to the house. 

A house about 6 by 10 feet. 

Yes. 

A house 6 by 10 and one 8 by 12. 



A. 


23. 


A. 


24. 


A. 


25. 


A. 


'26. 



rooms together, thus adding a great deal of natural heat in cold 
weather and plenty of cool fresh air and warm sunshine in 
scratching sheds, where fowls can work and scratch in perfect 
contentment, thus being healthy and vigorous in every respect. 

A. 24. About the same as above, but plenty of room for 
growth and exercise; perches and droppings boards built low and 
roomy. Lots of sunshine and good care. Window close to 
floor. 

A. 25. Yes, by all means, I think it the only proper 
method for market or fancy. 

A. 26. I have them different sizes, mostly about 4 or 
5 feet wide, 6 or 8 feet long, some larger; large window close to 
floor on south side to slide back for good fresh air, and door on 
either end, never on north side. Built on runners to move to 
any part of farm. 

MRS. H. W. HAND, White Hall, 111. 

WHITE WYANDOTTES 

A. 23. The open front, scratching shed type, with roost- 
ing room in rear. This house should front south, have all walls 
but front of solid air tight construction, roof sloping to north, 
low pitch, air tight. Front should have a door and one or two 
large windows, the latter guarded by poultry netting and on the 
inside provided with a muslin drop curtain for bad weather. 
In cold climates the roosting room should be double walled, and 
have an extra muslin drop curtain in front of roost to be used 
on very cold nights. 

A. 24. The same. 

A. 25. Yes. 

A. 26. Houses 4 by 8 feet, 3 feet high in rear and 4 feet 
high in front, with a window and door in front, and set up on 
legs eighteen inches high, so as to make a shelter from sun and 
rain . 



HARMON BRADSHAW, Lebanon, Ind. 

S. C. WHITE LEGHORNS 

A. 23. 16 feet wide and long, 4 foot hallway down one 
side. Divide in pens 12 by 12 feet with yard for each pen. 

A. 24. Have brooder house same plan as above. When 
old enough to leave brooder put out in colony houses. 

A . 25. Yes. 

A. 26. Boarded up on three sides, with J-inch mesh 
wire on the other. This gives plenty of air and keeps rats, 
etc., out. 



GUS. L. HAINLINE, Lamar, Missouri 

WHITE WYANDOTTES 

A. 23. Continuous house and scratching shed plan on 
account of ease of caring for them; want double yards to each 
house. 

A. 24. A colony house in which I can put a brooder with 
50 chicks and let them grow up in it; and if necessary spend the 
winter in it. Two piano boxes back to back, covered with 
rubber roofing, on 2 by 4 for skids makes a fine house. 

A. 25. Yes. 

A. 26. Two piano boxes back to back; also house 10 by 
10 by 7 feet high (built for adult stock). 



WM. H. ROBINSON, La Fayette, Ind. 

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS AND WHITE WYANDOTTES 

A. 23. I prefer the long and open scratching shed house 
with curtains to let down in stormy weather, and two roosting 



C. L. PENCYL, Bloomsburg, Pa. 

BUFF PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

A. 23. I would build it with windows facing south, also 
door the same place, all sides and rear end closed; ventilate all 
from front towards south. Keep windows open as long as 
possible in the fall; never close them tight. Build size to suit 
taste, but never too high if you want a warm pen; would build 
with dead air space sides and rear, paper between weather 
boards and sheathing. 

A. 25. Yes, I do. 

J. M. WILLIAMS, No. Adams, Mich. 

S. C. AND R. C. BUFF ORPINGTONS 

A. 23. Open scratching shed for feeding, with a warm 
roosting place for nights; same has been demonstrated time and 
time again in the poultry magazines. 



66 






THE POULTRY PLANT 



A. 25. Yes. 

A. 26. We use a 3 feet by 6 feet slanting 
of air, flat roosts, etc. 



roof; plenty 



OTTO O. WILD, Benton Harbor, Mich. 

WHITE WYANDOTTES 

A. 23. Separate houses with scratching sheds attached, 
of a capacity of 25 adult fowls or 50 growing chicks, increasing 
or diminishing numbers as the exigency demands. 

A. 24. Am a convert to larger houses, more scratching 
room, more open fronts and much more air. 

A. 25. Yes, after 2\ to 3 lbs. have been reached. 

A 26. At present am using piano boxes covered with 
roofing paper and supplied with door and screened window, but 
shall work them over into "Tolman" houses. 



R. H. CRANDALL, Worth, Mich. 

S. C. AND R. C. WHITE AND BROWN LEGHORNS, WHITE WYANDOTTES, 
PEKIN DUCKS, TOULOUSE CEESE AND BRONZE TURKEYS 

A. 23. Long, low roof house facing the south, two win- 
dows to a pen and pens 17 by 20 feet inside and a 3-foot alley- 
way on north side. 

A. 24. Colony houses for young stock. 

A. 25. The colony house plan is the nearest to nature 
of any. 

A. 26. We use 60 colony houses 5 by 6i feet, and 6 feet 
high with a hip roof made of matched lumber and covered with 
tar paper, 12 by 24 window in one side and door in end. 



A. & E. TARBOX, Yorkville, III. 

SILVER LACED WYANDOTTES 

A. 25. Yes. 

A. 26. We prefer house large enough for the brooder and 
plenty of exercise room. 



S. J. McQUILLIANDE, W. Hartford, Conn. 

WHITE PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

A. 23. It depends altogether on the climate where the 
man expects to locate. 

A. 24. I prefer trees for them after they are feathered 
and keep them there until snow flies. 



C. H. WYCKOFF, Aurora, N. Y. 

S. C. WHITE LEGHORNS 

A. 23. Don't know how to answer this; there are hundreds 
of good ones and many more bad ones. The poultry house that 
affords the most comfort to the fowls the year round, and is 
at the same time most convenient for the owner to care for is 
in my judgment the best house. 

A. 24. First, outdoor brooders, then colony houses for 
balance of the summer. 

A. 25. Yes. 

A. 26. Those of the open front style with front covered 
with hoods that permit opening or closing to any degree allowed 
by the weather changes. 



IRVING F. RICE, Courtland, N. Y. 

S. C. WHITE LEGHORNS 

A. 23. House divided into pens, suitable for 15 females 
and one male, with straw loft, cement floor, good ventilation 
and light, extra window frame covered with muslin to be sub- 
stituted for glass windows during the greater part of the day. 
This keeps the litter dry and affords better ventilation, hens 
will stand a low temperature if kept dry, but dampness and cold 
are fatal to profitable egg production and healthy breeders. 

A. 25. Yes. 

A. 26. 8 by 10 feet in size, 5 feet high in rear and 7 feet 
high in front. 



F. W. RICHARDSON, Hicksville, Ohio 

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

A. 23. Prefer colony houses with large yards for breed- 
ing yards. 

A. 24. For young growing chicks prefer small houses 
with plenty of ventilation, well scattered over farm. 

A. 25. Colony plan. 

A. 26 Use colony house about 4 by 8. 



ARTHUR G. BOUCK, Frankfort, N. Y. 

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

A. 23. I am about to enlarge my plant and will build a 
house on the shed roof style, as I believe this style as good as 
any for very cold climates. 

A. 24. I use the apex style of colony house, built on 
runners. Floor space about 5* by 8 feet and altitude 6 feet. 



J. T. THOMPSON, Hope, Ind. 

WHITE PLY'MOUTH ROCKS AND MAMMOTH BRONZE TURKEY'S 

A. 23. I prefer the colony house, with the open scratch- 
ing shed attached. 

-4. 24. I prefer the same kind of a house for my young 
stock. 



W. R. GRAVES, Springfield, Mass. 

WHITE WYANDOTTES 

.4. 23. A scratching shed front that can be closed at will 
to suit weather conditions. 

A. 24. Same. 

A. 25. I do. 

A. 26. One that will give plenty of fresh air and if there 
is not much shade raise from ground sufficiently to enable the 
chicks to get under for sliade. 



CHAPTER FIVE 

LEADING STANDARD VARIETIES 

SELECTING A BREED— POPULAR FOWLS BEST FOR A BEGINNER— BETTER TO STICK TO ONE 
VARIETY— PLENTY OF GOOD ONES TO CHOOSE FROM-STANDARDBREDS COMBINE BEAUTY 
AND UTILITY— WITH PRIDE IN FINE BIRDS PLEASURE AND PROFIT GO HAND IN HAND 



fHE SELECTION of a variety or breed is largely a 
matter of individual preference. What may suit 
one will sometimes not please another, and fortu- 
nately there are many good and beautiful varie- 
ties of standard breds to choose from. Each and 
every enthusiastic specialty breeder, almost 
without exception, will endeavor to convince 
you that his favorite variety is best. He has 
good reason to feel that way. They are best for him, best 
because they please him, he loves them, knows them thor- 
oughly and they bring him in good honest money, as a re- 
ward for his labors with them. You can't blame a man for 
insisting that his own particular choice, the one that does 
well by him, is best. Now and then you will find a breeder 
with broader and more liberal views, sometimes he is a speci- 
alist but more often a fancier or practical poultryman who 
breeds more than one variety, and still less frequently you 
will find some veteran at the business who sees the good in all 
the more popular varieties and even some that are not popular. 
It is very natural and very human to consider our own selection 
and favorites the best. 

As a matter of fact there are many good and entirely 
satisfactory varieties. The beginner can choose any one of the 
many mentioned in this chapter and not go wrong. Time was 
when it was generally believed that some varieties would lay 
more and better eggs than others of equally popular breeds, now 
the fact is quite well known that it is not BO much a difference 
in variety as a difference in breeding that distinguishes the good 
layer or the indifferent layer. Brahmas, usually considered 
sluggish layers except in winter, have been produced that made 
record egg yields upwards of 200 and 250 eggs per year per hen 
Plymouth Hocks, Wyandottes and Rhode Island Reds have 
likewise shown top notch egg records that equal those of any 
Leghorns and Minorcas both duly accredited egg machines. 
The heavier varieties are slower to mature and do not as a rule 
lay as early as their lighter weight sisters, but here too breed- 
ing has much to do with the case in point for we have plenty of 
evidence that American and even Asiatic varieties can be bred 
for early maturity. 

There is no one best breed. The beginner should be govern- 
ed by his personal taste, his liking for the birds. Let him choose 
a breed that pleases his particular fancy, then get the best 
stock obtainable within his means, study the birds and put 
good earnest effort into breeding good ones. If the breeder 
does his part intelligently he can count on getting eggs and 
meat too, as well as fine feathers and exhibition quality. When 
it comes to meat production the lighter weight varieties suffer 
a little handicap, they don't remain "soft-meated" long and 
they haven't the size, but when young they go well on the home 
table and as small broilers are hard to beat. 

Brahmas, Langshans, Cochins, Plymouth Rocks, Wyan- 
dottes, Reds, Minorcas, or Leghorns, there is much that is good 
in all of them, and after all a choice is merely what you or 1 
see in the breed that pleases us, you can't go wrong with any 
one, but make it one, life is too short for any man to thoroughly 



know more than one variety. Choose that variety which 
pleases you best. Be guided somewhat by your location and 
the demand of your market. Some markets want white eggs, 
some brown. All brown egg markets prefer yellow skin and 
legs. Some will take and pay good prices for white skinned 
birds. Try to combine your needs in one variety if you can. 
Is pays to be a specialist. 

In Chapter I. in the symposium "Starting in the Poultry 
Business" well known successful breeders tell which are their 
favorite varieties and why. Read and study that advice but 
bear in mind that each man is bound to say a good word for 
his own choice. 

ASIATICS 

Grand size, wealth of plumage, feathered or booted legs, 
stately, dignified, albeit somewhat clumsy deportment, are 
among the chief characteristics of the Asiatic breeds. Brahmas, 
Langshans and Cochins all are worthy of special mention, but 
we can only find room to briefly notice the leaders. 

LIGHT BRAHMAS AS UTILITY AND 
EXHIBITION FOWL 

I. K. FELCH, Natick, Mass. 

That the Brahma is the best all 'round fowl for every pur- 
pose fowls are put to, cannot be denied. The fact that following 
all excited booms for new varieties, when the excitement is 
over, the breeders come back to the Brahma in its original con- 
formation; of an oblong body, full-rounded breast, wide pos- 
teriors, birds that appear to have an equal breast and posterior 
weight when divided at and with line of shanks; with a close, 
adhesive, whaleboney texture of plumage that shows hock 
joints in profile below the body line. Tins was the original con- 
dition when the hen, Rebecca, secured the world's record of 
laying 313 eggs in 333 days, the record is for the year of 1876. 
Hens shown at Rutland the year following scored 97 points, 
since which time we have repeated records of 96J points with 
males as high as 95$ points, and I know of two records where a 
pen of Light Brahmas sweepstaked two shows where even Ban- 
tams competed at a score of 189J points for two pens. All this 
establishes their merit as exhibition stock, while flocks of 35 to 
75 birds have average individual records of 160-11-15, 161, 192 
eggs, hatching and rearing an average of S chicks each, with the 
hen Pareppa laying 23 consecutive months when sold. Is not 
this piling up merit in a few words? These, with other indivi- 
dual hens laying even 231 eggs in a year! 

As poultry, Brahmas will grow the largest number of pounds 
at eight months per fowl for food consumed. The late hatched 
cockerels pay better to feed through the winter for the spring 
trade for roasters and this is the only breed that will do this. 
When kept in celibacy so as to remain soft meated. we have sold 
many as high as $3. each as virgin cocks, this enables a breeder to 
carry over all males for breeding purposes. When March and 



68 



LEADING STANDARD VARIETIES 



April comes it enables him to sell the surplus at 25 to 30 cents per 
pound for large, soft roasters. The present call for the breed 
out of which to produce capons has quickened the demand for 
Brahmas in a marked degree. Their large, dark-shelled eggs, 
which are the heaviest of all eggs have enabled breeders to secure 
a private trade at a price of 50 cents per dozen the year 'round 
and such produced the celebrity of the breed. So much for 
absolute, practical merit. 

For their beauty — a plumage in which is combined immacu- 
late white and beautiful brilliant black, the white of the neck 
striped down the center of each feather with blue black, a pure 
white surface color of breast, body and wing; with a tail and 
maintail and sickles a lustrous black; with coverts in the females 
black edged with white and wing feathers black and white, the 
black being the predominating color. In the male we have a 
tail spread at an angle of the letter A, or inverted V, and filled 
in underneath with each curling feather of white and black; the 




L 



WINNER OPF-IR.5T PRlZEr,B05TON.t9°7- 

SPECIAL i 00 oc> CHALLENGE: C^P- 
AL50 5HAPE SPECIAL *«* CPLPR SPECIAL - 
BRED^OWNEDBY J-LKERR- WILTo^ N-H- V-. 

1 ' : 



FIRST PRIZE LIGHT BRAHMA HEN, BOSTON, 1907 



The challenge cup Light Brahma hen at Boston, 1907. 
owned by J. L. Kerr, Wilton, N. H. 



Bred and 



shanks and feet clothed in a plumage of white or white mottled 
with black, the latter preferred in the male. When the last 
row of saddle-feathers are in character like the coverts, then 
does the specimen become the most striking in color combina- 
tion and captivate the beholder of them at our fairs. In the 
point of score whole Hocks have averaged to score higher than 
any other breed and 90 out of every 100 chickens raised have 
sold at a higher average price than any other. We have before 
now sold $2,230. worth of chickens raised from Cour de Leon 
.and the 8 Pareppas for an average of $75.00 each. The highest 
price I ever sold is thirteen specimens at $1300. The highest 



price for a hen $55. We have- known of birds sold in exhibi- 
tions, after having won, to be sold as high as $150. 

So much a lover of the breed am I that I would see all the 
other breeds I am identified with annihilated before I would 
consent to see the Light Brahmas become extinct; they are the 
best breed on earth. I believe when they are fed right, bred 
right and kept in the conditions under which they do their best, 
they are the most profitable and for me the most beautiful of 
all the fowls in our Standard of Perfection. 

(Standard-bred Light Brahmas are our heaviest breed, 
adult males weighing 12 pounds, females 9£ pounds. They have 
rich yellow skin and yellow legs, meat is fine grained, tender, 
juicy and of good flavor. They are exceptional winter layers 
of large dark brown eggs. This variety is a favorite one with 
growers of the famous South Shore Soft Roaster. They are very 
hardy and not liable to be seriously affected by ordinary diseases. 
Brahmas are rather slow to mature, pullets usually lay when nine 
months old; cockerels are mature when eleven to twelve months 
old. Brahma hens make fairly good sitters but are rather too 
heavy and are clumsy mothers. — Ed.). 

BLACK LANGSHANS 

For those who like a black bird it is hard to find a more 
pleasing heavy weight variety. Adult males should weigh 10 
pounds, females 7 pounds. The plumage is a beautiful glossy 
metallic black with a greenish lustre. They have white or flesh 
colored skin and the legs are blueish black with soles of feet 
whitish or pinkish-white. 

Langshans are fairly hardy, the flesh is soft meated and 
of fine flavor. They are good winter layers of brown eggs and 
are good sitters and fair mothers. In the show room they al- 
ways attract attention through their beauty of form and plu- 
mage. These handsome fowls are very docile and soon get on 
friendly terms with their attendant. 

Birds of this variety have been shown that scored 94 to 96 
points under a careful judge and many have been sold at "long" 
prices. Although a "solid color" variety they require the use 
of considerable skill in mating and breeding to bring them up 
to full measure of Standard requirements, and the fancier will 
find that they give him ample opportunity for study and the 
exercise of his mental faculties. 

Langshan chicks are not usually solid black when newly 
hatched, they may be grayish or splashed with white. They 
frequently show white in plumage until fairly well grown or until 
they put on adult plumage. Mature specimens to be used as 
breeding birds should be solid black and breeders are sometimes 
hard pressed to keep their birds from showing white feathers. 
. White to the extent of one half inch in any part of the plumage 
except leg and toe feathers disqualifies the specimen and bars it 
from competition in the show room. Beginners with this variety 
should cull closely for this defect and should not breed from 
birds sporting white feathers. Purple lustre or purplish bar- 
ring is another serious defect and should be guarded against. 
Undercolor should be either black or dark slate color. 

For town or city lot poultry keeping, Langshans will prove 
excellent as they are easily confined and their black plumage does 
not show the ill effects of the dust and dirt of town and city life. 

As a fancy fowl or to supply the family table this variety 
will always prove a source of pleasure and profit. As a market 
variety it has never made much progress in this count ry owing 
to the prejudice against white skin and black legs in fowls. 
Why this notion should exist when the same buyers would eager- 
ly take a turkey with white skin and black legs is difficult to 
understand. Black pin feathers are another serious market 
defect. However, the variety is very popular with some brooders 
who cater to a special market that does not harbor those pre- 
judices Some of the finest capons grown in western Now York 



69 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



state are pure-bred Black Langshans, and it is claimed that for 
producing large capons of exceeding fine quality and tooth- 
someness this variety is hard to beat. We have aimed to treat 
them fairly, but some Langshan specialists will be sure to class 
us among the prejudiced. 

BEAUTIFUL BUFF COCHINS 

Among all the Asiatic varieties there are none that excel 
the well bred Buff Cochin from a standpoint of real merit in both 
beauty and utility. Of late years the variety has become some- 
what less popular owing to the prevailing tendency to breed 
them to looseness of plumage and excessive feathering. There is no 
more beautiful sight than one of these wonderful bundles of buff 
plumage as soft and fluffy as a downy pillow on milady's couch. 

If the breeding for plumage is not carried to the extreme 
this variety is entirely practical and desirable for other purposes 



read so much about White Wyandottes as egg producers that I 
purchased twelve pullets and a cockerel. Then I bought a 
sitting of Silver Laced Wyandotte eggs and also one of White 
Plymouth Rock eggs. 

"The pen of White Wyandottes began to lay the first of 
November and laid quite well. The White Plymouth Rocks 
began to lay at six monihs of age, the Silver Laced Wyandottes 
at seven months and the Buff Cochins at eight months, but I 
found the Buff Cochins to be the best layers. After they started 
to lay they soon made up for lost time and I had the least trouble 
with the hens becoming broody. When one became broody I 
would place her in a pen with pullets, feed her better and she 
would soon forget all about it, starting in to lay in a few days. 

"I cannot say enough in praise of my favorite breed, the 
Buff Cochins. I have sold all the others and keep the Buffs 
exclusively. As winter layers my experience has found them to- 
be unequaled, and I find the chicks easier to raise than any 




THE FRONT, PROFILE AND REAR OF A MODERN BUFF COCHIN MALE 

The above Ruff Cochin cock bred by Dr. J.J. Hare, Proprietor of Holmhurst Poultry Yards, Whitby, Ont., Canada, is shown as an example of 
desirable Cochin shape and feathering 



than exhibition, although as a show bird they have few equals. 
Buff Cochins possess an exceedingly strong and hardy constitu- 
tion and are wonderfully active and vigorous for their size. 

When properly bred they are fine layers of rich brown eggs 
of good size. The size and the number of eggs produced de- 
pends a good deal on the strain you breed. Some specimens 
bred with little or no attention paid to utility values are rather 
poor producers and lay small eggs for the variety. A lady of 
our acquaintance writes: 

"I would like to state a few facts from my own experience 
since beginning to raise poultry both for pleasure and for profit. 
As we live in town, I decided to try Buff Cochins, because they 
would be easier to keep in the yards; so I sent for a sitting of 
eggs from standard-bred stock and got a fairly good hatch. I 
then concluded to try several breeds, giving them all an equal 
trial and keep the breed that proved the best layers. I had 



other varieties. They are always ready for their food and there 
is not a fowl on the place that I cannot pick up at any time, they 
are so tame. Cochin males are very kind to the little chicks. 
I presume some will call me a Buff Cochin crank, and perhaps I 
am. Aside from a utility standpoint, their rich, even buff" 
feathering and great size are all that any lover of the beautiful 
could wish." 

Buff Cochin adult males should weigh 11 pounds, females 
SJ pounds. Pullets reach laying maturity at seven months and 
are good winter layers. Hens make good sitters and mothers. 
Males are at breeding maturity when nine to eleven months- 
old. If bred properly and well grown the meat is fine grained 
and fine flavored remaining "soft" until the birds mature. 
They make excellent capons. Where the stock is bred for 
feathers only without regard to quality of flesh they are apt to 
be rather coarse meated. This is true of nearly all Asiatics.. 



70 



LEADING STANDARD VARIETIES 



AMERICAN BREEDS 

Popular size, beauty and utility combined, that describes 
the American varieties as a whole. Good for eggs and meat — 
the real general or all purpose fowls. Yet withal they rank 
among the best and most popular exhibition varieties. They 
fill the largest classes at our shows, draw some of the longest 
prices from our purses and make their breeders happy whether 
bred for show-room or the market place. Being to the manor 
born, originally produced and developed in the United States, 
they appeal to the patriotic spirit as well as the senses, not the 
least among these last being "common sense." Beautiful, 
hardy, vigorous, active, foremost in the show-room and also 
in appeasing our appetites for prime quality poultry and eggs 
they have never yet given their originators and breeders the 
least cause to be ashamed of them. Plymouth Rocks, Wyan- 
dottes or Rhode Island Reds, all of the old varieties and most 
of the new ones are popular in the best sense of the word and 
deservedly so. These varieties are all hardy, stand confinement 
well, are good foragers on range, are easily confined, a five-foot 
wire fence will keep them within bounds. Excellent sitters, 
fine mothers and unequalled producers of good sized brown eggs. 
Good market size, mature early, fine flavored soft juicy flesh, 
easily fatted, yellow skin and clean yellow legs; these are a few 
of the sterling qualities of the leading American varieties. 



BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

WHY THEY ARE IDEAL FOWLS FOR THE FANCIER— 
THEY COMBINE ARTISTIC BEAUTY AND UTILITY 

E. B. THOMPSON, Amenia, N. Y. 

SPECIALIST BREEDER OF BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

The reasons for my preference for the Barred Plymouth 
Rock over all other breeds is simple and easy to tell. 

Some 28 years ago as a boy I concluded to commence with 
one single breed and only one and bring it to the highest possible 
perfection. After much thinking I finally arrived at the con- 
clusion that the Barred Plymouth Rock was the ideal breed. 

In the first place they are a practical fowl, they are a utility 
bird, and these things are absolutely necessary in any breed of 
poultry if a large demand and great popularity is expected. 
The Barred Rocks are splendid layers the year round. In fact, 
I have testimonials from my customers stating almost wonder- 
ful laying records by my "Ringlets." 

The Barred Rock is a good sized bird with yellow skin and 
legs and a quick grower. On account of this fact they are 
largely bred for broiler and market purposes, the foundation 
being utility and practical worth — the same as a large beautiful 
and ornate building must stand upon a deep, solid and practical 
foundation. 

The principal reason for my choosing the Barred Rock for 
my fife's work is their wonderful plumage. The exquisite color 
of a fine exhibition specimen can hardly be told in words and 
to produce the clean, bright, narrow, straight barring year after 
year is a fascinating study and worthy of the highest skill in 
live stock breeding. In point of fact, a great breed with the 
superlative qualities of the Barred Rock must be in universal 
demand and have a tremendous sale. 

Since I originated the "Ringlet" strain and during all the 
years I have bred them the demand has been enormous for breed- 
ing and exhibition birds, not only in this country but in foreign 
lands. I have shipped them all over the world, and during the 
past two months have sent "Ringlets" to Australia, Japan, 
South America, South Africa, Germany, England and Russia. 



The kind of poultry to breed and spend time, money and 
labor on is the breed the majority of the people want and I have 
found the "Ringlet" Barred Rocks have a popularity unprece- 
dented. This popularity could not exist without actual merit 
and worth. 

To sum up the Barred Rock is a business fowl with exqui- 
site feathers and plumage. They meet alike all the require- 
ments of the market poultryman and the born fancier whose 
solitary purpose is to own a breed for exhibition in the largest 
shows where competition will be the fiercest. The prices paid 
for superior exhibition and prize winning specimens are very 
large and the Barred Rock class usually exceeds all other breeds 
in numbers at the leading shows. This fact is further convincing 
evidence of the popularity of the breed — they have been called 
"America's Idol." 

The coloring of an exhibition Barred Rock and the artistic 
beauty of a perfectly barred feather is a delight to a fancier and 
the best poultry artists in the country must acknowledge that 
when they have correctly portrayed on the canvass one of the 
highest types of a Barred Rock they have reached the climax 
of skill in poultry illustrating. 

POPULAR PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

The Barred Plymouth Rocks are one of the oldest and most 
popular of the American varieties. You will find birds showing 
Barred Rock feathering in nearly every farm flock in the country. 
Wherever a male of this breed has once been used he leaves his 
trademark of plumage to follow on indefinitely in the progeny. 
This breed was originally produced by mating a good old-fashion- 
ed Dominique male with Black Java females. 

The beautiful barred plumage of standard-bred birds of 
this variety is too well known to need description here and is 
best seen in the exhibition pen to appreciate it at its full value. 

To produce exhibition specimens of highest excellence all 
breeders of this variety find it necessary to resort to the double 
mating system; one special mating to produce male birds with 
exhibition markings, shape and size, and another to produce 
females with like requirements. The Barred Plymouth Rock 
fancier finds that he has his hands full in endeavoring to produce 
fancy specimens of highest excellence. When he succeeds he 
wins high honors in the show room in the hottest kind of com- 
petition, and he can usually command any price within the 
bounds of reason that he may care to ask. It frequently happens 
too that he does not care to sell at any price. 

Mr. A. C. Hawkins, Lancaster, Mass., poultry judge and 
breeder, writes of the Barred Rocks as follows: 

"Many of the judges have become so thoroughly carried 
away with the under barring that they pay little attention to 
the beauty of the surface color. They begin to score from the 
skin and cut more severely for lack of under-color than for an 
inferior surface. The beauty of a fowl is what we see, and 
while I am a believer in distinct, even barring under the surface, 
I do not want the bars so strong and heavy underneath that 
they destroy the beautiful blue on the surface, and it is a fact 
that most of the specimens that are very strong in under-color 
have a muddy black bar on the surface. It is also a fact that 
the very finest surface colored birds have not the strongest 
under-color. The two qualities do not breed together, naturally, 
or, in other words, those males that are most attractive in the 
breedir.g yard and exhibition pen may not have the same strength 
in the under-barring as other specimens that are less attractive. 

"Now, breeders, which will you have? What I want, and 
what any real fancier wants, is perfection in surface color and 
all the under-barring that nature will supply with it. and not 
what some judges I know require, namely, perfection in under- 
barring and as good surface as we can get with it. 



71 







"RINGLET" BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

Winners at Madison Square Garden, New York, January, 1906, of the American Plymouth Rock Club's special for the best pen mated to 
produce exhibition cockerels. They were owned, bred and exhibited by E. B. Thompson, Amenia, New York. 



LEADING STANDARD VARIETIES 



LINE FOR MALE BREEDING 

"To produce fine males select the very best exhibition male 
to head the pen. He must be a bird of standard weight, or a 
little over, with broad, full breast; low, evenly serrated comb; 
solid red lobes, bay eyes; broad, well curved back; nicely curved 
tail, carried rather low; and strong, rich yellow legs, set well 
apart. In color he should be a rich, dark blue, even all over, 
and as closely barred as possible to retain distinctness, with 
wings and tail distinctly barred throughout. Get all the under- 
color possible with such a surface, but do not let the surface 
suffer for the sake of heavy under-color. 

"Mate with this male eight or ten females of the same line 
of blood, or, in other words, females whose sire and grand-sire 
were high scoring exhibition males of the type and color I have 
described. Select females of standard size, with small, evenly 
serrated combs, bay eyes, blocky shape, broad backs, low, well- 
barred tails, and strong, yellow legs. In color these females 
should be several shades darker than exhibition color, the bars 
to be narrow, distinct and close together in all sections, with the 
under-color strong and distinct to the skin. With these strong 
colored females you can get all the under-color in the male pro- 
duct that it is possible to have with a brilliant, high colored 
surface. 

"From such a mating as I have described, if bred in line, 
I can produce 95 per cent, first-class breeding males with 25 per 
cent, of sufficient merit for exhibition at the best shows. 

LINE FOR FEMALE BREEDING 

"In mating to produce high-class exhibition pullets select 
females of the best exhibition color, evenly and distinctly 
barred down to the skin. Be particular that the neck is evenly 
and closely barred and not lighter in color than the back and 
body. Have the main tail feathers and tail coverts well barred 
across the feather. Females are liable to fail in these sections 
unless care is exercised in the selection of the breeders. Have 
them standard weight or a little over, with broad, full breasts, 
broad backs, gently inclining to the tail, which should not be 
carried too high. I prefer a slight cushion, which gives the 
female a round, blocky appearance. The comb should be small 
and evenly serrated, eyes bay, and legs a rich yellow. Such a 
bird should be fit to show in any company. If these females 
have been bred in fine for several generations the offspring will 
be more even in form and color. 

"With these females place a male of medium light color 
and of even shade from' head to tail. He should be of standard 
weight, have broad, deep, full breast; body not too short; back 
well curved to tail, which should be carried rather low. This 
male should have been bred in line from high-class exhibition 
females for several generations, so that his blood may have the 
same character as that of the females with which he is mated. 

"From such a mating can be produced 95 per cent of first- 
class breeding females and 20 to 30 per cent of high scoring 
show specimens. The males from this mating will be very nearly 
the color of the sire, and are useful as breeding birds in mating 
for exhibition females. Save only those that are even in color 
for breeding purposes." 

Barred Rock pullets reach laying maturity at the age of 
six and one-half to seven months and prove grand fall, winter 
and spring layers. The hens are exceptional mothers. Cockerels 
mature at from nine to ten months old. All Plymouth Rocks 
fatten easily and exhibit a tendency to take on fat internally 
after maturity. Adult males will tip the scales at 9$ pounds and 
hens range about two pounds lighter in weight. They are fine 
meated but rather coarser boned than other American varieties. 
Young stock is hardy and easily reared and adults are not liable 
to disease. Good foragers but are easily kept in confinement. 



Brown eggs, yellow skin and legs. This variety is one of the 
favorites at the Maine Experiment Station where they are 
developing a wonderful capacity for egg production. 

WHITE PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

U. R. FISHEL, Hope, Indiana 

Pardon me for stating my honest belief that the White 
Plymouth Rocks, as bred today, are the most beautiful and 
profitable of all domestic fowl. This is a rather broad assertion , 
it is true, but nevertheless I believe it is based on facts. 

Whence came the White Plymouth Rocks? Their origin 
is not surrounded by mystery, nor are they a made-up, happy- 
go-lucky variety. They originated in the year 1874, the first 
birds shown being a pair of chicks exhibited in the fall of that 
year by Wm. P. Woodworth, at the Eastern Maine fair held at 
Bangor. Mr. Woodworth wrote me under date of October 13, 
1904: "I was the first one to raise and exhibit the White Ply- 
mouth Rocks. I had a pair on exhibition at the Eastern Maine 
Fair, held at Bangor, this state, the year before Mr. Frost got 
his chicks. Mne were raised from eggs of Barred Rocks of the 
Essex strain. Unfortunately my birds were both cockerels but 
Dr. G. W. Twitchell and myself thought they were a pair at the 
fair. Mr. Frost had a few pullets the next year, and the White 
Plymouth Rocks were bred from them." 

We may reasonably conclude, therefore, that the origin of 
the White Plymouth Rocks is quite definitely fixed; they are 
"sports" from Barred Plymouth Rocks, pure and simple. By 
careful culling and breeding, Mr. Frost soon established a new 
and valuable variety, bearing the name White Plymouth Rocks, 
which were duplicates of the, at that time, standard Barred 
Rocks in all respects except color. 

In one of the leading poultry publications way back in 
1886, a breeder of White Plymouth Rocks said, "They are true 
to color, size, shape, etc., and in an experience of over one 
hundred chicks reared this season there is not a colored feather 
to be found." Certainly it took careful breeding to get these 
results twenty years ago, and yet some people wonder at the 
marvelous growth in the demand for White Plymouth Rocks. 

Mr. Frost, above referred to as one of the originators of 
this variety, said in an article, also published back in the 80's: 
"They are superior to any other breed as layers." If twenty 
years ago the White Plymouth Rocks were considered the best 
egg producers, it is not surprising that they have more than 
held their own. Plenty of evidence is at hand to prove that the 
remarkable egg yield of the White Plymouth Rocks has been 
conserved and increased by White Rock specialists until today 
no other fowl equals the White Plymouth Rocks as egg producers. 
No matter in what climate they are bred, whether in the cold 
regions of Alaska and Nova Scotia, or in the hot clirnate of 
South Africa and Southern Australia, or on the Islands of Java, 
New Zealand and Tasmania, they give perfect satisfaction, both 
as egg producers and as table fowl. 

Is there any other variety for which equal or greater claims 
can truthfully be made, as regards utility value? With full 
respect to all other breeds and varieties, White Plymouth Rock 
breeders can safely challenge comparison. 

The improvements made in the standard qualities and 
general make-up of the White Plymouth Rocks of today, as 
compared with the best specimens of ten years ago, is marvelous 
The White Rocks of today are bred larger in size, have better 
shaped bodies, the bodies being rather long and deep, with 
broad full breast, thus producing a far more powerful looking 
and stately fowl, as well as a better carcass for the table. 

As a fancy fowl the White Plymouth Rocks now command 
the highest prices paid for any standard variety, single specimens 



73 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



the past season having sold for five hundred dollars each in males 
and fifty dollars each for females. It has come to pass that 
hundreds of White Hock exhibition males are now sold each 
season at from fifty to one hundred dollars each. This is evidence 
in proof of my opening statement that the White Plymouth 
Rocks are today the most beautiful and profitable of all standard 
\ arieties. 

Remember, however, that the White Plymouth Rocks are 
"bred for business" as well as fancy. White Rock chicks mature 
earlier thai! those of most other varieties, becoming broilers at 
six to eight weeks of age. As above stated, they have no sup- 
ei i.H 3 as egg producers. If this claim is not acknowledged today, 
it soon will be the world over. White Rock pullets often begin 
to lay at live months of age, and I have known flocks that did 
not stop laying even dining molting season. 

In conclusion, I make bold to say that there is no other 
variety of fowl that has won the admiration of the fancier, the 
farmer and the market poultryman as have (lie White Plymouth 

flocks. As a farm ami market fowl they 
have no equal, and the prices paid for 
fancy specimens are a fair index of their 
Standard qualities, farmers and market 
poultrymen are adopting them as the 
uperiors of all other breeds and varie- 
ties I hey are always ready for market 
from the age of si\ weeks on; their large 

size commands attention and high prices, 

the hens weighing from seven and a half 
lo nine pounds; their rich, yellow shanks 
and skin insure a clean plump eareass, 
bringing the highest market prices ob- 
tainable, at any season. Last, but not 
least, the feathers from White Uoeks to- 
day bring twenty eight cents per pound 
while those of parti colored varieties bring 
but two and one-half cents per pound. 

Please consider well the difference, for 

here ia a strong argument in favor of 
"pine white" plumage. 

W hen it, comes t,, breeding W bite 

Plymouth Hocks, this is a plea lire indeed 
Their beautiful plumage, bright red combs, 
deep bay eyes, rich, yellow legs and up- 
light, powerful appearance are a constant 
source of delight to the genuine fancier. 

1 have been a br ler of fancy poultry for 

more than a quarter of a century, starting 
with the exact opposites of White Ply- 
mouth Rocks, so far as color is con- 

Cerned, having bred and exhibited prize-winning Black Lang- 
shans at the New Orleans World's fair which was held so 
long ago that most poultrymen of today have forgotten the 
event, but at present 1 am making a specialty of the White 
I loeks, and intend to continue doing so the rest of my active 
life, because I like them best of all. If you, reader, have not 
yet become wedded to a particular breed or variety, try the 
White Plymouth Rocks and become convinced of their excel 
lent, qualities. 



BUFF PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

C. L. PENCYL, Bloomsburg, Pa. 

I breed Buff Plymouth Rocks exclusively. I have had 
quite a number of other varieties in my early poultry life — being 
somewhat undecided as to what breed I would like the best — 



and after several years experience I decided that I could not 
find the same pleasure in any of the other breeds. I think for 
any fancier to make a success of the fancy poultry business, 
that is, profit as well as pleasure, he must see which breed is 
going to please him the best and then breed but the one variety. 
He will find that the one variety will give him plenty to do and 
that he can make just as much money out of one breed as he 
can out of two or three other varieties. I find both pleasure 
and profit in the Buff Plymouth Rocks, and that is why I breed 
them exclusively, and from the several hundred birds raised 
every year, I have the first year yet to come that I have raised 
more than I could sell. 

Buff Rocks as a utility fowl for the market cannot be ex- 
celled. They have the size, rich yellow skin, no black pin 
feathers and good plump bodies — any more you connot ask for 
in a table fowl. As egg producers, I find them excellent layers. 
They get broody occasionally, but if taken when first noticed 
and penned up for a few days, they will soon forget and will get 




TWO OF MR. PENCYL'S BUFF ROCK HENS 

back to laying in a very short time. Take it the year around, 
I think their egg account will balance any of the other Rock 
varieties. We know some of the smaller varieties may lay a 
few more eggs, but the Buffs are fitted up with nice low combs 
and a heavy coat of feathers and well prepared for the extreme 
cold weather; if housed up in good quarters will lay the whole 
winter when eggs are at their highest price. I find from experi- 
ence that they will lay more eggs in the winter than the large 
combed varieties. 

Taking fancy Buff Plymouth Rocks, I consider there is no 
fowl in the world that is more attractive in the yard or on the 
farm than this variety — for what attracts the eye more than a 
beautiful shade of rich golden buff — the coat of a Buff Rock. 
They are equally as attractive in the show room and if you are 
lucky to start in right with the best standard stock, you will 
not have much trouble by a little careful mating to breed speci- 
mens fit to show or win at the leading shows of America. There 
usually is a good demand for fine specimens selling in price for 
$50. to $100. each. 



74 



LEADING STANDARD VARIETIES 



Buff Rocks are growing stronger every year in the eyes of 
the fanciers and they number right up in line at the big shows 
of America. At the World's Fair, St. Louis, the Buff Plymouth 
Rocks were second largest class of any variety at the show, 
probably the largest poultry show ever held in America. I can 
honestly advise any person that wants to breed poultry for 
fancy or market, for pleasure or profit, that they won't make 
any mistake in taking up the Buff Rocks. They make money 
for us, and they will do the same for you by dealing honestly 
with your trade. I have shipped to nearly every state in the 
union, and Canada, and as far in the foreign countries as Malay- 
sia, Java and India, and the reports were that after eight weeks 
of a journey the birds arrived safely in good condition and 
more than pleased the customer. The Buff Rocks are strongly 
constituted and can stand lots of cold weather and long journeys. 

The Buff Plymouth Rock Club is using every possible effort 
to place this variety on the "top notch." If any person who 
may read this is undecided as to what breed to start with, I 
can say from experience that the Buff Plymouth Rocks will 
start you on the road to success. 

WHITE WYANDOTTES 

ARTHUR G. DUSTON, So. Framingham, Mass. 

It has been almost fifteen years now that I have been 
writing and preaching of the virtues of the White Wyandottes 
and while other breeds have come and gone the White Wyan- 
dotte has been gaining ground not only as a fancy but as a 
market bird as well. I will first make mention of the intrinsic 
or market value, for no matter how handsome a fowl may be, 
they must "make good" as egg producers and table fowl to 
maintain their popularity with the American people. 

My experience raising broilers and roasters covers some 
years, and when first taken up was with a prejudice for another 
variety, but a short trial proved to me that nothing that I was 
running at that time would begin to stand the forcing and make 
the quick growth that the White Wyandottes would, and as 
roasters for brooder house work they would stand more forcing, 
and keep on their feet, than any of the half dozen other varieties 
I tried. For the Boston market, considered one of the most 
fastidious in the country to cater to, they were complimented as 
the- best poultry sent in in the season. 

■ As layers I have letters from customers where they have 
discarded the Leghorns as their White Wyandottes out-laid 
them. Birds sold by me have made records of 207 eggs in 
Experiment Station and other work, and the farms that are 
running today with layers having big records are almost without 
exception breeding White Wyandottes exclusively. Regards 
laying, with ordinary care they will come to laying in from 
five to seven months, laying persistently through all changes 
of weather and conditions. It is these practical qualities that 
make possible the real popularity of this splendid breed. 

Now from a fancy standpoint we have what is acknow- 
ledged by all breeders of the different varieties a handsome fowl, 
and by those the least favorable to them, as the handsomest 
bird bred today. A solid colored bird, with pure white plumage, 
close fitting comb, stout yellow legs, and of splendid propor- 
tions (if our Standard makers do not spoil them by trying to 
make them "dumpy" by the demand for extreme shortness) 
and withal a bright active appearance, does truly substantiate 
the claim of the handsomest all 'round variety bred today. As 
a proof of their popularity witness the New York Show with 
four hundred and eighty-one specimens on exhibition in 1905. 
More than was ever before shown of any one variety in the 
largest exhibition in America, and competition was so keen that 
scores of birds that would ordinarily be in the winning could 
not be considered. Specimens changed hands at splendid 
prices. I myself have refused $200. for a male, while I have 



known of a cock bird for which $500. was refused. This speaks 
of not only the interest and enthusiasm of the breeders and 
exhibitors of this breed, but also that while a solid colored bird, 
to breed it "up to the minute" means that one has no easy task. 
It also demonstrates that as the individual specimens have im- 
proved, the fancier has also insisted that the standard require- 
ments also be moved forward so that the lines of beauty are 
continually being filled out and broader, richer colored birds 
have to be produced if one would win with them. 

The breed is truly an American variety, in as much as for 
years they were bred only in a small way in other countries. 
Today this is changed, calls come from every country, and the 
White Wyandottes have made a place for themselves with our 




QVEEMIEr °r- A3HLANP - - • - 

PIR5T PR.1Z& HErN.NEW YORK-1907" 
ARTHUR G.DU5TotS,59 FRAMINQHAM .MASS- 
OWNER. AMD Bft&E-DrrR. • - - 



WHITE WYANDOTTE HEN 

One of the finest White Wyandottes that ever appeared at Madison Square 
Garden show, was Arthur G. Duston's ( South Framingham, Mass. t first prize- 
winning hen. There is Standard finish to her fine head, back and tail and 
modern show style in the way she is posed on her short, well set legs. 

friends in England, Germany, South America, South Africa, 
New Zealand and Australia. In fact, the list is too long to con- 
tinue for I have shipped stock to practically every foreign 
country. Australia seems to be taking the lead in the interest 
of American-bred White Wyandottes, with an especially strong 
interest in England. 

With the unprecedented interest taken the past few yi ars 
in this practical breed it seems almost impossible that it should 
continue to increase in popularity and yet there are many many 
sections of the country that have yet to find breeders who are 
handling the White Wyandottes. and the thousands who annu- 
ally arc discarding other varieties, together with hosts in all 
parts of the country becoming interested in them makes a grow- 



75 




x 2 

O £ 



LEADING STANDARD VARIETIES 



ing demand for what, without doubt, is the best all purpose 
fowl today, and whose breeding to standard requirements means 
the utilizing of all the scientific knowledge and mental capacity 
that those who breed them possess. 

As I said above, it has been about fifteen years now that 
I have been singing the praises of the White Wyandotte and 
while the story must of a necessity be much the same, it must 
convince readers that the bird has of a truth "made good" and 
in many ways has made great gains, otherwise the thousands of 
breeders of this and other varieties would have discovered the 
falsity of these claims. 

In closing I can only suggest to my readers to do what 
seems, at this time, to be the fashion — investigate these claims. 
Our President, our Secretaries, our Senate, in fact everybody in 
every walk in life feels they must do that with which the very 
atmosphere seems charged — investigate — so let me suggest what 
lines you should follow: For market worth; the laying quali- 
ties — number of eggs, color of shells, and quality of egg; the best 
of sitters (but easily broken up and careful mothers); plump, 
quick grown broilers; hardy full-breasted roasters with a small 
amount of offal; hardy chicks. Their eggs will compare favor- 
ably with those of the Leghorns for ease with which the chick is 
finally excluded at the end of three weeks incubation. The 
square built hardy growing chicken, coming to an early maturity, 
the female producing an exceptionally large number of eggs. 
Breeding birds always in demand at highest prices. As show 
birds they occupy today the centre of the stage and command 
the top prices for show specimens of merit, that more than 
compare with any variety, or breed. As I have always claimed, 
they are the handsomest birds with pure white plumage, bright 
red comb and face, and yellow legs, a combination that must 
please. A word more, "Handsome is that handsome does," 
is a fitting climax to our argument. 

SILVER WYANDOTTES 

While possessing all the requisites of. a general purpose 
fowl of exceptional merit the Silver Wyandottes are primarily 
and will probably remain an ideal "fancier's fowl." It takes 
the ingenuity of the most skillful breeders to maintain them at 
the highest standard of excellence. In short, as a show bird they 
are difficult to breed to such a state of perfection as to win in 
the competition they must meet. This is just what the true 
fancier enjoys. Honors that come easy are not valued highly. 
Where recognition in the show room must be won by good hard 
brain work in selection and handling of the breeding stock, that 
is where real pleasure comes, to the fancier. He enjoys the 
trophies of a well fought battle all the more because of the good 
hard work in the breeding yards and with the growing stock. 

Silver Wyandottes came into being early in the seventies 
or late sixties and were originally known as American Sebrights. 
In some sections of the country they are extensively kept by 
the fanners and are very popular with them. This was the 
original Wyandotte variety and at one time enjoyed a most 
vigorous boom. The White Wyandottes, true sports from the 
Silvers, being developed and judiciously advertised as a general 
purpose fowl without an equal, and not without substantial 
evidence of the truth of the statement, soon after the beginning 
of the boom in Silvers did much to divert attention from the 
parti-colored variety, so much so that the Whites completely 
outstripped the Silvers in the race for first place in popular 
favor and became a formidable competitor of the Barred Rocks. 
This did not prevent the Silvers from gaining and keeping many 
friends and supporters, and today the breeders of this variety 
are all staunch advocates of its good qualities both for beauty 
and utility. Exhibition specimens are in demand and bring 
fancy prices. As a fowl for the beginner who wishes to study 
mating parti-colored birds for results in standard requirements, 



this variety is sure to please. On the city or town lot where 
dust, smoke and dirt has to be considered and where white 
fowls will not keep clean, there is no variety that will sooner 
find favor or be more certain to please. The beautiful rich 
black and silver-white color combinations in this variety are 
always a delight to the eyes. 

These birds stand confinement well, are hardy, active and 
vigorous, good layers of brown eggs. Pullets mature at six 
months and are fine winter layers. Hens make fine sitters and 
mothers. Cockerels are mature at nine to ten months old. As 
a meat breed they are a little slower to mature than the white 
variety, but are of excellent quality, the only drawback being 
the dark pin feathers. 

BUFF WYANDOTTES 

In the early nineties Buff Wyandottes began to be regarded 
seriously as a breed with a "future." Their development dur- 
ing the years immediately succeeding was normal. Popularity 
came to them as they earned it and clung to them because they 
stood the test. Yet merit is not spontaneous, but must be 
developed and brought out by careful handling. In fact, the 
success of a breed, or variety, is said to depend largely upon 
the ability and energy of its breeders. In this particular, Buff 
Wyandottes have been more than ordinarily fortunate. Some 
of the brainest men in the fancy have given thought, effort and 
money to improve them. 

While perfecting their shape and color, in accordance with 
the requirements of the Standard, breeders have not neglected 
the laying and meat producing qualities of their strains. Buff 
Wyandottes will make a profit on market eggs alone and they 
grow fast, make good broilers and plump, full breasted roasters. 

Their attractive golden-buff plumage, with bright yellow 
skin and legs, marks them as destined to reach the first rank in 
popular favor. The Buff Wyandottes undoubtedly had several 
different origins, some being produced by a Wyandotte-Buff 
Cochin cross, others by crossing Rhode Island Reds and Wyan- 
dottes, and still other crosses were used before this desirable 
breed as we now have it, was produced. 

The Buff Wyandotte, more than any of the other Wyandotte 
varieties, is more closely related to the Asiatic family, as Buff 
Cochins were much used in the formation of this breed in order 
to get the desired coloring. The Rhode Island Red also entered 
largely into the Buff Wyandotte ancestry, thus increasing the 
tendency to the Asiatic form, as the Rhode Island Reds were 
themselves principally descended from the Asiatics. The Buffs 
mature early, pullets laying at six months old. Cockerels are 
mature at nine to eleven months old. They possess all the other 
good qualities of Whites and Silvers. 

NEW VARIETIES 

Columbian, Silver Penciled, and Partridge Wyandottes, and 
Plymouth Rocks, are among the newer aspirants for public 
favor and are being shown at all the large exhibitions in increas- 
ing numbers. Their sponsors claim for them all of the meritor- 
ious features, as general purpose fowls, that are possessed by 
older representatives of the breeds. 

Undoubtedly the Columbians are destined to become the 
most popular and it remains to be seen whether the rose comb of 
the Wyandotte or the single comb of the Rock will gain pre- 
cedence. At present writing the Columbian Wyandotte seems 
to have a good lead. They are being bred to good size and 
shape and their compact shape and small neat combs make them 
very attractive. Briefly the Columbian Wyandotte is a bird 
having Wyandotte shape, with the beautiful black and white 
combination known as Light Brahma colored plumage and clean 
yellow legs. They are said to be excellent layers of brown egir.- 
good sitters and mothers. Pullets mature to lay at six months 
old and cockerels are mature at nine to ten months old. 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



RHODE ISLAND REDS 

The Rhode Island Reds originated in the state from which 
they take their name, and their forebears were the liardy red 
fowls common on most farms in that section of New England. 
There they were kept and bred for utility purposes for many 
years, chiefly for eggs, then meat, before they were discovered 
and developed into exhibition poultry by the fanciers. Since 
their adoption by the fancy there lias been much improvement 
in uniformity of size, shape and color and the economic or prac- 
tical value has in no wise suffered thereby. They produce more 
eggs and make better poultry than ever before. Whatever 
varieties may have been crossed and re-crossed in their make-up 
it is certain that they possess quite a little Asiatic blood which 
contributes to their hardiness and meat producing qualities. 
They are now bred with both rose ami single combs, both vari- 
eties being recognized by the Standard. 

Rhode Island Reds take their name from their beautiful 
red plumage. It is to be hoped that the leading fanciers will 
I need cherry red specimens, and keep as far from buff color as 
possible, for red in these fowls is an infinitely more beautiful 
color, although harder to breed, but when you obtain the right 
shade, there is no color in show room to compare with it. 

Breeders claim for them that the old hens do not "fat up 
behind" like many of the larger breeds do, but will continue to 
lay large eggs even - year, until four years of age. 

This breed does not require extra warm houses. Any one 
who has had occasion to wash a Red fowl will find it almost im- 
possible to make the water reach the skin, on account of the 
number and closeness of the feathers on its body. This accounts 
for their hardiness and good winter laying qualities, as the cold 
does not affect them. It is not generally necessary to wash 
Reds for the show room, as they have the best color on the list. 
This fact will lie appreciated by all breeders of white fowls. 

The only valid objection that can be brought against the 
Reds is that some strains do not breed true to color, although 
the line specimens that have been shown this winter have sur- 
prised many by their high quality. One important fact to con- 
sider is that if the females do not always breed true to color 
you may depend upon getting a good layer every time. 

The Reds are prolific layers of large brown eggs, are plump 
bodied and fine meated. Adult males should weigh 8J pounds, 
females 6$ pounds. Pullets reach laying maturity at six months 
and the hens make dependable sitters and good mothers. Cock- 
erels mature at eight to ten months old. This variety has en- 
joyed great popularity since its introduction and is carried in 
large flocks on many poultry plants devoted to the production 
of fowls for both exhibtion and practical purposes. One New 
England egg farm regularly carries 1500 head of Rhode Island 
Red breeders. 

ENGLISH BREEDS 

Of the English varieties the Buff Orpingtons and Silver 
Gray Dorkings are among the most popular in America today. 
Both are combined exhibition and practical fowls of great merit 
and valuable as general purpose stock. With already so many 
good breeds of native origin on this side of the water, it will be 
patent to the ordinary observer that these varieties must possess 
remarkably good qualities to bring them prominently into 
public favor. Undoubtedly the Orpingtons are destined to 
become the most generally bred of the two. 



BUFF ORPINGTONS 

The Orpingtons were made in England, especially planned 
for utility purposes, the efforts of their originator, the late Mr. 



William Cook, being to produce a fowl that would combine great 
egg production with the highest quality of meat for table poultry. 

Buff Orpingtons are handsome fowls with their deep, broad 
breasts and massive bodies. They are white skinned and make 
first-class table fowl, fattening early and presenting a nice ap- 
pearance when dressed. The hens are good layers of brown or 
tinted eggs of average size, are quiet in disposition and, although 
not inveterate sitters, they make good mothers when entrusted 
with eggs. 

The Buffs first appeared in 1904 and were produced by 
mating Golden Spangled Hamburgs with colored, i. e., dark 
Dorking Hens, the pullets resulting from this mating being 
crossed with Buff Cochin cocks as free of leg feathering as could 
be secured. The Buff Orpington is a modernized Buff Cochin, 
a big, hardy, handsome fowl, a good layer, and a first-class table 
product. Probably its chief attraction is its white legs and 
shanks. Adult males weigh 10 pounds, females 8 pounds. 

The people of Great Britain are much in favor of birds with 
white legs, in fact, a first-class table fowl must show a white 
shank', or else it ceases to be a first-class table fowl. As the 




SINGLE-COMB BLACK ORPINGTON HEN 
Bred and owned by G. S. Byers, Hazelrigg, Indiana. 



only white-legged fowls, previous to the advent of the Buff 
Orpingtons, were the Dorkings and some of the Game varieties, 
there naturally followed a boom in that variety. Fanciers, 
farmers, and suburban poultry keepers all took them up. Since 
the early days of the Buff Orpington it has been wonderfully 
improved, but even now it is far from perfect, though feathered 
legs and long backs no longer appear in the show pen. It is 
still quite difficult to breed them anywhere true to color, and 
indeed, sound buff tails are yet scarce, but the utility value of 
the variety makes amends, as the off-colored pullets may be 
kept for layers and the cockerels fatted for the table. 



LEADING STANDARD VARIETIES 



The three points to be considered in breeding Buff Orping- 
tons are: First, color, which should be a sound buff, free from 
black and white feathers; second, shape, which should be similar 
to that of the Black Orpington; third, clean, white feet and 
shanks, free from feathering. 

Serious defects in Buff Orpingtons are: More than four 




BLUE-RIBBON BUFF ORPINGTON COCKEREL 

This cockerel won first prize at Madison Square Garden, New York, 
1905, He was owned and exhibited by W. Barry Owen, Owen Farms, 
Vineyard Haven, Mass. 

toes; wry tail; feathers or stubs on legs and feet; yellow skin; 
yellow in legs or feet; any eoltjred feathers other than buff. 

Orpingtons were originally bred for utility only, and al- 
though fanciers have taken them up so warmly that at all big 
poultry exhibitions they form a show of themselves, the econo- 
mic qualities of the breed have not suffered. 



SILVER GRAY DORKINGS 

The Silver Gray Dorking as a table fowl enjoys the dis- 
tinction of surpassing any other English breed for the excellent 
quality and abundance of meat. Being deep and full as to body, 
with broad, plump breast, the Dorking probably leads for the 
greatest quality of choice meat. A prominence and plumpness 
of the breast is especially noticeable in the cock bird, which 
viewed side ways should form a right angle with the lower part 
of the body. There is probably no other breed so easily placed 
in good marketable condition. The size, form, and weight, in 
judging the Dorking hen counts much more so than in any 
other variety of fowls. The hen is a fine sitter and excellent 
mother, caring for her brood until they are well grown. If 



allowed unlimited range, the breed is hardy and the young easy 
to rear if not hatched too early in the season. The hens are 
fair layers. 

MEDITERRANEAN BREEDS 



These are the so-called egg machines of poultrydom, the 
White, Buff and Brown Leghorns and Black Minorcas, all non- 
sitters. Where good-sized white eggs alone are wanted the 
Leghorns will be found to fill the need. If a heavier fowl pro- 
ducing large white eggs is desired the Minorcas can be depended 
upon to give satisfaction. 

The above mentioned fowls are all bred with both rose and 
single combs, making six separate varieties. Those who live in 
the milder climates will find the single comb birds entirely to 
their liking. The rose combed varieties are well adapted to 
cold climates and those who want either Leghorns or Minorcas 
for cold latitudes will do well to consider them. 



WHITE LEGHORNS 

D. W. YOUNG, Ridgewood, N. J. 

There is no family of the domestic fowl so universally known 
as the Leghorn. I have been in nearly every country on the 
globe, and being a breeder and lover of the "Little Italians," 
have spent a good deal of time in the farming districts, in search 
of information as to their origin. In no country where domestic 
fowls are kept did I fail to find a trace of the Leghorn blood. 
In fact, some of the best specimens that I saw in the Mediter- 
ranean countries were in a little town just outside of Constanti- 
nople, Turkey. 

I find that lovers of White Leghorns are apt to consider 
them the originals, and to regard the Browns as "sports," (also 
vice versa); but it seems to me that the old Leghorn family of 
Italy was very much like our mongrel fowls of today, i. e., would 
breed to almost any color, but would hold the Leghorn char- 
acteristics which are so much admired in these days. 

Antonio Conto, who has one of the best established poultry 
ranches in Italy, just in the suburbs of Florence, told me in an 
interesting conversation that I had with him, that he started 
over fifty years ago to breed the Whites and the Reds (as the 
Browns are called in Italy), by selecting here and there a bird 
as near to his liking as possible, and after mating the Whites 
together found that he got almost as many Browns, Blues and 
Blacks as he did Whites, and same way with the pen of Browns. 
This seemed to be the general opinion of the breeders I met in 
many parts of Italy. 

I have often heard my father say the same thing of the 
first birds he imported from Italy, between the years of 1S53 
and 1S60. which were brought over by an old sea captain named 
Stratton, of Lewisburg, N. Y., who made a business of taking 
merchandise from this country to Leghorn, Italy, and bringing 
back marble for ballast. Those early birds were very much 
the same as may be seen today in Italy, or in the other Mediter- 
ranean countries. The Whites were small, with yellowish 
white plumage, squirrel tails, roach backs, short, low set bodies, 
having large, beefy, unevenly serrated combs, long pendulous 
wattles, red faces, red ear-lobes and yellow eyes. The majority 
of them had yellow legs with stubs or down on the shanks and 
between the toes, but they always were very sprightly and alert 
and were known for their great laying qualities. 

Take the show specimens of today and one can readily see 
what the American fancier, by persistent study and hard work, 
has done to beautify this noble variety which, without a doubt, 
is the most profitable of any of our domestic birds, as is proved 
by the great number that are kept by the most successful egg 



7!' 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



farmers who send the large white eggs to the fancy egg market 
of New York City. Some of them keep as many as eight thou- 
sand layers and are getting all the way from five to twenty 
cents per dozen more for their eggs than the market price. 

There has been a tendency of late by the American breeders 
to divide the different strains of Single-Comb White Leghorns 
into two classes; the Utility Class and the Show Class. This I 
think is a mistake, because I have found that my best show 
specimens are the most vigorous and include the greatest layers. 
This is as it should be. Thinking that perhaps I was mistaken, 
I have bought eggs to experiment with from several of our well- 
known utility breeders, and reared the chicks on the same farm 
under the same conditions that I did my very best show speci- 




."WIrtNER op f- ]R5T PRizt.NEWYoRKW 
^w^TQvD.W.YoVNQ.RlDQfrWoopM.j 



WHITE LEGHORN PULLET 

First prize-winning pullet at Madison Square Garden Show, 1907. 
Bred ami owned b) I). \V. Young, Ridgewood, N. J. 



mens, and I then made practical tests wnli trap-nests. In no 
case have 1 found the utility birds to be the greatest layers, or 
to possess as great stamina and vigor as my line-bred birds. 

I have been using trap-nests and have practiced line breed- 
ing since 1885. In May 1S84, I visited the Channel Islands 
and during my investigations on the Island of Jersey, asked one 
of the breeders of Jersey cattle from what source they got their 
new blood. He answered me by saying, "We do not get new 
blood, but practice line-breeding." After he had thoroughly 
explained what line-breeding was and what it had done for the 
Jersey cattle, the thought came to me, "why can I not do the 
same with my Leghorns?" I started line-breeding the next 
year and have practiced it ever since and I believe it to be the 
only way to establish a strain and to hold it to the Standard. 

It makes no difference how fine a bird is, or how many 



first prizes he may win in the show room, unless he has good 
ancestry back of him for at least five generations, he is not 
worth for breeding purposes the price that he would bring at the 
butchers. One of the greatest mistakes our breeders and 
fanciers make is in going out for new blood through the male 
New blood should always be introduced in the flock through the 
female. When one parts with the male line of his strain and 
substitutes a male of another strain, he has broken his male line 
of descent, and no longer lias a strain of his own. 

The Leghorn fancier has been favored by the American 
Poultry Association in regard to the size and weight problem. 
It seems to me that old mother Nature lias figured out a certain 
size for the egg type and if we go beyond this, we not only will 
lose the productiveness of the breed, but also will lose its alert- 
ness and that sprightly carriage and grace of movement so dear 
to all true lovers of the breed. Let us retain the true Leghorn 
model because the large birds will not lay as many eggs and are 
not by any means as good foragers. In England, they have 
crossed White Leghorns with the White Minorca in order to 
get size, chalk white plumage and a low tail; the outcome is that 
they have got the low tail and large size, but have entirely lost 
the Leghorn type and characteristics. I think that the American 
White Leghorn fanciers are on the right road. While they have 
made their favorites the greatest layers on earth, they have 
not marred their beauty nor destroyed the Leghorn character- 
istics that are so much admired in the show room today. 

In answer to the question "Why I Keep Single-Comb White 
Leghorns," Mr. H. J. Blanchard, proprietor of Fairview Farm, 
Groton, Tompkins Co., N. Y., and one of the largest and most 
successful breeders of this variety, states: 

"To begin with, most people keep fowls for profit and here 
is the Single-Comb White Leghorn's strongest point. The 
greatest profit to be derived from utility poultry keeping is in 
producing fancy market eggs and in most cities, large white 
eggs bring the highest price. In New York City, where I sell 
all my market eggs in the season of greatest scarcity, and con- 
sequent highest prices, there is often a difference of eight to 
twelve cents a dozen between fancy brown and fancy white 
eggs in favor of the white, and at other times more or less differ- 
ence. A good strain of this variety lays an egg of good size 
and it is universally conceded that no fowl produces a greater 
number. 

"As squab broilers of J to 1 pound each, Single-Comb White 
Leghorns are very profitable. When old fowls are to be closed 
out for market purposes they should be confined for several 
weeks and carefully fattened. 

"As a fancy fowl the Single-C,omb White Leghorn is equally 
profitable. They are a very old and widely distributed breed 
and consequently individuals do not sell at as high figures as 
some of the newer breeds, but the greater demand for them 
more than makes up on the difference in price. Single males 
have, I believe, sold as high as $200. and females $100. Pens of 
four females and one male for $250. Good exhibition males 
that have never been shown sell for $25 to $50 each and females 
$15. to $25. each. As utility breeders the females bring $2. to 
$5. each and males $2. to $10. each. 

"In all the years I have bred Single-Comb White Leghorns 
the demand for breeding and exhibition stock and eggs for 
hatching lias been heavy and the popularity of the breed was 
never so great as at present. 

"The great market egg farms of New York, New Jersey and 
California almost without exception are stocked with Single- 
Comb White Leghorns, as it has greater numbers at a lower 
cost than any other breed, hence is most profitable. The 
Single-Comb White Leghorn is vigorous, hardy and thrives hi 
nearly all countries, climates and under all reasonable condi- 
tions. The eggs are generally well fertilized, hatch well and the 
chicks are as hardy and as easily raised as any. 



LEADING STANDARD VARIETIES 



"As to the beauty of the Single-Comb White Leghorn, none 
can deny but that a well bred, well developed specimen, either 
male or female is an inspiring sight; the stately, almost haughty 
bearing of the male, the dignified, graceful female, the beautiful 
white plumage, bright red combs and yellow legs, the curved 
back and well rounded breast, all go to make the most beautiful 
of all our fowls." 



BROWN LEGHORNS 

W. W. KULP, Pottstown, Pa. 

Twenty years ago when I studied the ads I found many 
breeding Brown Leghorns. Look over the poultry papers today 
and see how many advertise S. C. Brown Leghorns. Why do 
they last so long? There are other kinds of Leghorns, some have 



of ours you will find them in long lines in almost every show. 
I have seen ten pens besides the many singles in a local show. 
This alone will testify to their beauty. The combination of 
white, black and red, or as in the female white, brown and gold, 
is always beautiful, then the shape and style are models of grace 
and beauty. In choosing what breeds I would keep if I wished 
to have a few to ornament a place, I should select the Brown 
Leghorns for one. The best specimens bring fine prices, too. 
A winning male of the top ones will bring $100. and perhaps 
more. The females will bring fully one-half of it. The market 
for fine birds is always with us, they can be sold readily. 

It requires skill to breed them as any one well knows who 
has tried it. They are hardy, matured birds can live anywhere 
that any other fowls can and will lay eggs if treated right. The 
young are easy to raise, especially in their season. They can 
be put out with a hen, given any food that is fit for a young 
chick and they will thrive. 







FIRST PRIZE COCK. HEN & PULLET 

GROVE MILL POULTRY FARM 



MADISON SQU> 

IS06 



SINGLE COMB BROWN LEGHORNS 

WALTHAM. MASS. 



CHAMPION BROWN LEGHORNS 
These blue-ribbon winners at America's greatest poultry show, Madison Square Garden, New York, were bred by Grove Hill Poultry Yards, 
Waltham, Mass., and show the remarkable quality of Grove Hill's strain of Single Comb Brown Leghorns. 



been very popular, they were beautiful and laid well, but their 
day has passed. 

The qualities that a breed or variety must have to stay 
popular are beauty, yellow legs, hardiness, requiring skill to 
breed to standard, young easy to raise, must be either very good 
for meat or for eggs or combining both. These are about what 
the American public will demand and no amount of booming 
will keep a breed popular that has not a goodly supply of these 
qualities. A breed can be forced on the public for a few years 
with part of these requirements lacking, but after a few years 
the boom wanes. 

How many of the above qua lilies have I lie Brown Leghorns? 
If you will take note of all the shows held ever this broad land 



One of the great points in favor of the Leghorns is that the 
young can be raised in a short season in comparison to the 
larger breeds. This is very important when winter eggs are 
wanted for, hi spite of incubators and brooders, we are often left 
with too few chicks when April is here, when the earlier broods 
should be out. 

They are not a meat breed but are good eating. Meat fine 
and sweet. It has been said thai they are not good table fowls. 
I cannot see why unless you take an overtime young male and 
kill him right off the range. He will be a little out of the best 
condition but that is the persons fault, not that of the breed. 
They are easy lo sell to local trade as small families do not 
want so many pounds at a meal as the big breeds furnish. Lots 



si 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



of white eggs are the Leghorns strong hold and they can well fill 
and hold it. Records of from 200 up to 250 in twelve months 
have been made and they can do it easily, but man must manage 
t hem properly to do it. A 240-egg hen requires a man or woman 
who is a 2-10-egg manager, too. 

.Mr. C. E. Howell used to say that the Leghorns, he kept 
the S. ('. Browns, laid so well that we could afford to throw the 
body away after they were done laying and yet have more in 
the end than if we kept heavy breeds. 



BUFF LEGHORNS 

All Leghorns lay well and the Buff variety is not behind the 
Others in this respect. Since this variety was introduced it has 
become wonderfully popular and breeders have succeeded in 
producing some very remarkable specimens of beautiful buff color 
combined with Leghorn size, shape and sprightly carriage. They 
are quite as large as the White and some run even larger, and they 
produce a good sized white egg. The fancier will find them a 
beautiful and most attractive fowl, possessed of all the good 
points to be found in the excellent Leghorn family. They are 
bred with single combs only. They are hardy, easily raised and 
non-sitters. They do well in confinement but are naturally 
rangers and foragers and will "fly the coop" at the first oppor- 
tunity. It takes high fences or covered runs to keep them in 
if penned, even in fair sized yards. 

Buff, White or Brown Leghorn chicks will make good 
broilers, friers and small individual roasters, but the White 
variety is much to be preferred for this purpose on account of 
the absence of dark pin feathers. Leghorns are better suited 
to farms with liberal range than to city or town lots, although 
if properly confined in such locations will do well and prove a 
profitable invest inent. 



PROFITABLE BLACK MINORCAS 

Mr. Geo. H. Northup, Raceville, N". Y., who deserves more 
credit than any other American breeder for popularizing and 
uplifting the Black Minorcas, writes: 

Black Minorcas are among the chief varieties of poultry. 
They stand at the head of all breeds as layers of large white 
eggs. The first and second prizes for the "best dozen white 
eggs" at the li)0(i Boston Show were won by Minorcas. Black 
Minorcas, both Single and 1 ! c ise-Comb, are the largest non- 
sitting varieties known, ami they are also excellent for table 
Use. My .-ales ill Black Minorcas during the first six months of 
1906 amounted to mure than 82,000, and on the 20th of Feb- 
ruary 1 found that 1 had sold every Minorca that I could spare 
excepting a lew of the lower priced cockerels. During tlii- 
time 1 refused requests fur many special birds which I could not 
supply so that my sales of Singlet 'umb Black Minorcas alone 
would have mure than doubled the amount mentioned bad 1 
been able to take care of the demand. 

After selling my surplus I learned thai Dr. C. .1. Andruss 
had sold his farm and fur that reason would dispose of his 
Minorcas. 1 lost no time in purchasing his entire stock and 
advertising the greater part of it lor sale. The result was that 
in about two weeks time all of the Dr. Andruss' stock was sold 
excepting a sufficient number of the finest females to fill two 
breeding pens. If there is anyone who has good Black Minorca 
hens to sell in the spring of the year, it would be to their advan- 
tage to advertise the fact in the poultry journals, because I 
know there are hundreds now who wish to buy them. There is 
every indication of a brilliant season for the Black Minorcas 
both Rose and Single-Comb. 



Dr. W. F. Holmes, Randolph, Mass., answers the question 
"Why do we hear so little about the Single-Comb Black Minor- 
cas" as follows: 

It is my desire to say a few words for the benefit of those 
not acquainted with the virtues of this beautiful and useful 
breed of fowl, so that some who are comtemplating breeding 
them and are anxious to breed the best, may know a few of 
their good qualities. 

Many and possibly the majority of the general poultry 
public are of the opinion that Minorcas are not hardy, are of a 
delicate constitution and easily affected by the cold of our New- 
England winters. This is an entirely wrong impression and 
has arisen probably because of the extremely large combs these 
fowls possess. 




WINNER of^PRIIEATMADMWAREGARPEnrWIYoRK-IW 
SPECIAL P°R BE^T C°J1B ■0WrtfrPBYfRAIiK^GRAr(M.LANf.A5TeR- 



^4> 



BLACK MINORCA COCKEREL 

This male won the special for the best comb and head at the Madi- 
son Square Garden, New York, show, 1906. He is owned by Frank 
McGrann, Lancaster, Pa. 

Single-Comb Black Minorcas are in my opinion one of the 
most pleasing and best paying varieties of fowl known today. I 
make this statement only after many years of careful breeding 
both of Minorcas and other popular breeds. Because of the 
general impression of the inability of these fowl to withstand 
cold many people keep them in air-tight houses and supply 
artificial heat, thus converting a naturally hardy-constitutioned 
bird into one with weak powers of resistance; then when sub- 
jected to cold winds and weather the birds develop severe colds 
or other diseases and they are credited with being a fowl ex- 
tremely susceptible to illness. This is not the fault of the breed, 
but of the breeder. You can make any variety delicate by 
such treatment. 

The first necessity in breeding Minorcas, as in breeding any 
other fowl, is to have strong, vigorous foundation stock. I be- 
lieve in breeding Minorcas we should select only those birds 



82 








VIEWS OF ONE OF THE LARGE EASTERN DICK PLANTS 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



that have always been strong. Never breed from a bird that 
has shown even one day's illness. Select those birds with me- 
dium or not over-large combs. I am of the opinion we ought 
not to breed the exceedingly large, beefy combs we see so fre- 
quently, but rather breed from the small, thin, smooth-combed 
birds. 

We want the large, deep-chested, long-bodied Minorcas for 
business, and in order to get them our foundation stock must 
be right. 

Mate birds that are as near the Standard requirements as 
you can and you will get results. There is no necessity for 
double matings. Have your matings of vigorous birds and your 
eggs will be fertile. 

My experience has been that it is an exception for a Minorca 
to die from disease if properly. hatched. My chicks are not fed 
for twenty-four hours after hatching. Then they are given 
water and a feed of fine white grit, and even - two hours after- 
wards feed of bread crumbs soaked in milk squeezed dry in the 
hand. After three days they are fed at three-hour intervals on 
some prepared chick food. 

After four weeks they have cracked com and cracked wheat, 
grit, beef scraps and fresh water always before them. With 
this food and a green grass run my chicks are always health}'. 
I give my chicks liberty early in the morning whether the grass 
is dry or wet and have never seen any ill effects from the same. 
Absolute cleanliness must always be our motto. 

When three months old they are allowed to select their own 
roosting place, and tin, is usually in the apple trees, where they 
remain until late in November, when they are removed to the 
laying houses. All through the heavy cold fall storms they 
roost in the trees and bright and early in the morning they are 
busily at work. 

Get your Minorcas as near to, nature as possible and keep 

them there and you will never have a ease of sickness in your 
yards. My laying and breeding houses arc protected by oiled 
cloth (heavy cotton painted with boiled linseed oil) in front 
and the doors are wide open each day, no matter what the 
weather may be. By keeping Minorcas in perfect health and 
keeping up a good blood supply by exercise, proper food and 
fresh air, they will never freeze. 



IMPERIAL PEKIN DUCKS 

THE BUSINESS BIRDS OF THE TWENTIETH CEN- 
TURY—EXCEPTIONAL EGG PRODUCTION AND UN- 
USUAL PRECOCITY AMONG THEIR GOOD QUALITIES 



each dressed, when but ten to eleven weeks old. The last birds 
we shipped to market averaged 8 pounds each, dressed, though 
thej were but four months old. 

The great advantage of the Pekin over the other breeds is 
that they not only commence laying a month or two sooner but 
they will mature several weeks earlier than any other variety, 
thus giving us the control of the early spring markets which is 
by far the most profitable season of the year. I have always 
emphasized the point that size as well as fecundity is necessary 
to a profitable market bird. While it is no more trouble or risk 
to grow a large than a small one the returns are almost double, 
as the large bird will always command two or three cents per 
pound more than a small one. In addition to these advantages 
I have always found the Pekin more hardy than any of the other 
breeds. 

As an experiment, I would fill a machine with eggs from 
the different varieties, hatching them together and growing them 
in the same yards, subjecting them to the same care and food. 
I soon found that when any mortality occured it was seldom 
with the Pekin but always with the others. Best of all, weeks 
after the Pekins were dressed and in the market, the others 
were still in the pens being fatted. 

Another point in favor of the Pekin is unusual precocity. 
I have always contended that it cost much less to grow a pre- 
cocious bird than the opposite, for instance, you can grow as 
many pounds on a Pekin duck in ten weeks as you can on a 
chicken in twenty-five weeks. In the one case you have animal 
life to sustain nearly three times as long hi a chicken as in a 
duck, so that I have always considered that it cost me two cents 
per pound more to grow a chicken than a duck. Another good 
feature in favor of the Pekin is this — robust constitution. From 
the time the hardy little fellows are taken from the incubator 
until they are ready for market the mortality is insignificant. 
I lwve repeatedly crossed them with other breeds, Rouen, 
Cayuga, Aylesbury, etc., with the hope of getting a better 
market bird, resulting invariably in a greater mortality, im- 
paired vigor, with no increase in size or good market qualities. 

StilJ another point in favor of the Pekin is the perfect con- 
trol the grower has over the bird from the time it is hatched 
to maturity; he can not only grow them by the thousands in a 
small compass but can regulate that growth, control the mor- 
tality, increase the fecundity, grow flesh or feathers at will, 
and put the bird in the market three weeks earlier than any 
other variety. We think that the millions of these birds that 
are grown almost to the exclusion of any other breed, except 
for the fancy trade, is sufficient proof of its superiority over any 
other breed as a market bird. 



JAMES RANKIN, South Easton, Mass. 

The Pekin Duck is pre-eminent above all other varie- 
ties as a profitable market bird. I will here enumerate a few 
of their good qualities as compared to the other breeds. I have 
been breeding ducks for more than fifty years including all the 
Standard varieties with the exception of the Indian Run- 
ner. As the result of that experience I liave for the past 
fifteen years confined myself entirely to the Pekin as being by 
far the best as a profitable market bird. I have bred of this 
variety some twenty thousand birds annually. The fecundity 
is wonderful and its precocity equally so. The Pekin duck can 
be depended on, under proper treatment, to produce 125 eggs 
each season and under good condition 140 and in many eases 
where small numbers are kept, 160. 

Our own experience the past season has been 130 eggs each 
from one thousand birds. It may seem almost incredible to 
some but I have often known birds to tip the scales at 9 pounds 



GEESE 

Geese are extremely hardy and long-lived. They thrive 
on low-lying lands which would not be suitable for fowls. Old 
pasture is best suited to their requirements, as they crop the 
grass very short and would likely destroy the roots of newly 
sown grass. They must be afforded liberty and plenty of grass 
range. They are very coarse feeders and will eat nearly any- 
thing in the shape of green food. 

The gander likes to follow Iris own sweet will in choosing 
his mate, and it is sometimes difficult to induce him to transfer 
bis affections; so that it is necessary to mate them some little 
time before the breeding season opens. Geese have been known 
to breed at a great age. It is better, however, to discard them 
after eight or ten years. Young birds do not breed as satis- 
factorily as old ones. 

Although it is desirable to hatch early, it is not always 
advisable, as it depends upon the climate and location. Gos- 



84 



LEADING STANDARD VARIETIES 



lings need grass and do not thrive unless green food is supplied 
when they cannot get range. Where a grass range can be 
obtained in early spring, by all means hatch them early. 

Geese for market always bring good prices during the holi- 
day season and are in demand both alive and dressed in all 
of our city markets. Geese feathers are also a source of profit 
and at times bring fancy prices at retail. The prevailing whole- 
sale prices for geese feathers in America will, however, usually 
average 45 to 55 cents a pound for solid white and 35 to 45 
cents a pound for mixed or colored feathers. These are lowest 
wholesale or farm prices — those paid the producer. 

The more popular varieties of geese for the farmer are the 
Embdens, Toulouse and Africans. Embden geese have pure 
white plumage and orange legs. Adult ganders average to 



weigh 20 pounds; young ganders, 16 pounds; adult geese, 18 
pounds; young geese, 14 pounds. Toulouse geese are exten- 
sively bred, they have long deep bodies, color gray, shaded to 
white except on wings which are gray or brown, legs orange. 
Adult ganders will average to weigh 20 pounds, young ganders 
18 pounds, adult geese 18 pounds, young geese 15 pounds. 
Afiican geese are the least noisy of all varieties and are popular 
for crossing with other pure-bred or common geese to produce 
quick growing market birds. They are gray in color, with 
orange legs and have a large knob on their heads which gives 
them a formidable appearance. Adult ganders will weigh 20 
pounds, young ganders 16 pounds, adult geese 18 pounds, young 
geese 14 pounds. 




WELL-BRED, FARM-RAISED GEESE 



85 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 




TURKEYS 

During the Thanksgiving week of 1900 good fresh killed 
turkeys ranged from 28 to 40 cents a pound, according to size 
and quality, at retail in our large eastern city markets. Popular 
sized birds weighing from 8 to 14 pound- brought the highest 
prices because they were most in demand. The larger birds 
being less in demand sold for less and went chiefly to large 
wealthy famlies and to the better class of clubs, hotels and 
restaurants where large birds serve to the best advantage. 

Every year turkeys become more scarce and higher priced 
in the large cil y market s. Turkey growing is becoming more and 
more difficult as the increasing needs of growing population 
occupy and develop large pastures, woodland and wild lands 
and now in some sections of the country, where comparatively 
"new" soil cannot be had for range, these greatest of all table 
fowl grow fewer and fewer in numbers year by year. Where 
formerly large flocks ranged over the fields and attracted little 
or no attention from passers by, a flock of a dozen or two will 
now call forth excited comments from the wayfarer. 

Tainting of the soil by prolonged use for poultry and stock 
pasturage and the free use of various fertilizer materials in 
cultivation of the fields is by many believed to be, at least in 
part, the source of difficulty in turkey raising. Normally and 
naturally a wild fowl, they have never taken kindly to domes- 
tication in close confinement. They do best on wild, virgin 
3oil and require liberal range to have them thrive. 

Today an ailment known as "blackhead," a germ disease 
affecting chiefly the liver and digestive organs, is responsible 
for the difficulty in raising young turkeys, or poults as they are 
called, in many sections of the country, and it also causes alarm- 



ing mortality among adult stock. Apparently the germ of 
this disease may remain dormant in the soil for a long time, only 
to become virulent when taken into the fowl's body with con- 
taminated food or water. Experiment stations are giving this 
source of trouble careful investigation, although as yet but 
little has been accomplished that will serve to enable the farmer 
to grow turkeys in infected districts. 

In sections where liberal range can be had and where tur- 
keys will thrive, they are exceptional profit earners. The 
demand for good stock is always in excess of the supply both 
for breeding and market purposes. 

The most highly favored varieties are the Mammoth Bronze 
and the White Hollands. Both varieties are remarkable for 
size and beauty and are considered as hardy as any. Of late 
years much is being done in the south and west in crossing the 
Bronze with the native wild turkeys. It is claimed that this 
gives a hardier bird and one that can be more easily grown. 
Half-wild males and females are in demand as breeders at prices 
ranging from $10. to S25. each. 

Bronze Turkeys are the largest and their black, brown, 
white and rich bronze coloring makes them exceedingly attrac- 
tive on any farm They are hardy, fair layers and sitters. 
Adult- toms will weigh 36 pounds, young toms 25 to 33 pounds, 
adult females 20 pounds, young females 16 pounds. 

White Holland turkeys have pure white plumage which 
heightens the wonderful head and wattle colorings, making them 
a beautifvil ornamental as well as practical fowl. They are 
rather better layers than the Bronze and when well bred are 
quite as hardy. Fairly good sitters and mothers. Adult toms 
will weigh 26 pounds, young toms 18 pounds, adult hens 16 
pounds, young hens 12 pounds. 



86 



CHAPTER SIX 

THE MATURE FOWLS 

MANAGEMENT OF BREEDERS AND LAYERS 

HELPFUL SUGGESTIONS FROM MANY PROMINENT POULTRY KEEPERS ON THE CARE AND 
FEEDING OF BREEDING AND LAYING STOCK— TESTED DRY AND MOIST MASH RATIONS 
FOR THE MOST POPULAR VARIETIES— ANOTHER EXPERIENCE SYMPOSIUM OF SUUCESS 




10 THE beginner with poultry there is probably no 
more troublesome question than: "What and 
how shall I feed my fowls?" There are many 
good rations and as many good methods of feed- 
ing them. Believing that the best possible way 
to place before the beginner reliable information 
on this subject was to obtain advice from suc- 
cessful poultrymen concerning the rations and 
methods employed by them, we asked the followng questions: 
Q. 27. What do you feed your breeding stock? 
Q. 28. How do you feed adult stock, also how often? 
Sixty-five of the leading successful American breeders re- 
plied to our questions, some briefly and some in detail. It is 
interesting to note that 2S are decidely in favor of dry rations 
and 37 use moist mashes. Of these latter there are a number 
who are trying both plans but are not yet decided which is pre- 
ferable. By careful study of these replies the beginner should 
be able to select a ration and method of feeding that will be well 
suited to give satisfactory results with his favorite variety. 
Under the name of each breeder is given the variety or varieties 
he breeds, and that should be considered when comparing his 
ration with others, for there are some poultrymen who claim 
that different varieties need different food and care. 

In the care of all breeding stock irrespective of variety 
there are six essentials to success and these must never be over- 
looked, they are: Comfortable quarters, cleanliness, whole- 
some food in variety, pure water, exercise, and an abundance 
of pure fresh air. 

Comfortable quarters means good buildings (not necessarily 
expensive), dry, well ventilated and free from drafts. These 
should never be overcrowded — better keep too few fowls in a 
house than too many. Provide comfortable roosts above an 
easily cleaned droppings board, have roomy nests, at least three 
to every twenty birds; all nests, grit and shell boxes and food 
troughs or hoppers freely accessible and easily removable. A 
good dust bath and plenty of clean, bright and sweet litter are 
necessary to comfort. Good sized yards kept clean and with 
ample shade must be supplied. 

Cleanliness means that the droppings are to be removed 
sufficiently often to prevent them from becoming offensive and 
to prevent soiling the plumage of the fowls. Use loam, land 
plaster or sawdust on the droppings boards as an absorbent and 
clean up often. Once a day is less work than once a month, but 
once a week will answer if you must put it off and the weather 
is not too warm. Keep clean straw or shavings in the nests. 
Don't let too much dust accumulate on walls and timbers, sweep 
down once in a while and whitewash the whole interior of house 
at least once or twice a year if you can. Keep the fowls free 
from vermin. Use a good lice powder often to dust the birds 
thoroughly. Use a good liquid lice killer on the roosts and drop- 
boards. Both the powder and liquid are necessary. The 



powder for the body lice and the liquid for the mites that may 
infest the roosts and droppings boards unless guarded against. 

Wholesome food in variety means good, sound, sweet 
grains, wheat, corn, oats, barley and buckwheat, preferred in 
the order named: Green stuff like grass, clover, alfalfa, green 
rye, corn fodder, lettuce, etc; raw vegetables including potatoes, 
cabbage, beets, mangel wurzels, turnips, etc; animal food, 
(bugs and worms preferred) then beef scrap, lean meat scraps, 
green cut bone, blood, meat meals, etc; good clean grit, crushed 
oyster shells or clam shells and last but not least good, honest 
charcoal, well granulated. Charcoal as a preventive of diges- 
tive disorders and bowel trouble is unequalled, and no poultry- 
man can afford to try to get along without it. It is best kept 
before the flock in a hopper in the same manner as grit and shell. 

Pure water means water that you would consider fit to 
drink yourself. Don't draw the poultry supply from the duck- 
pond, or brook that runs through barnyards and hog-wallows 
and then look for success. Impure or fouled drinking water is 
a prolific source of disease and death among domestic poultry. 
Many a man gives his birds water to drink that he would be un- 
willing to wet his lips with. This is neither safe nor sane. Use 
good pure water and have it fresh and clean. Keep it in clean 
drinking vessels or fountains. Earthen crocks are best in sum- 
mer and galvanized iron buckets in winter. See that all drink- 
ing water receptacles are rinsed often and refilled at least once 
a day in winter and twice a day in summer. 

Exercise, that means that no matter how you feed, the 
birds should have a chance to scratch and enjoy themselves. 
Without exercise they will not make the best disposition of their 
food and you will not get as many or as fertile eggs. A sufficient 
amount of exercise means health, eggs and fertility. Any 
healthy hen will scratch if you give her a chance. In winter 
provide good, clean fitter 6 to 8 inches deep on the floor of the 
houses, and keep just enough whole grain in it to give them 
something to work for. Pile the Utter in front near the light 
and the hens work it toward the back of the house. They will 
work in litter even if you keep hoppers full of food before them 
all the time. In summer provide ample outdoor runs, plough 
them up and plant with grain. The hens will scratch it up 
again but that is what you want them to do. and the fresh 
green sprouts are very beneficial. Remember that the same 
ration that givSC an abundance of eggs with exercoag i.'v;l- 
will produce fat if they do not exercise. 

An abundance of pure fresh air means well ventilated, open 
front, scratching-shed or curtain-front houses. Buildings in 
which an abundance of fresh air is supplied without drafts at 
all times night and day. Plenty of fresh air and sunshine are 
the most reliable, safe, sure preventives of disease that we have 
and they do not cost money. Provide cool, well-aired quarters 
in warm weather, and in cold weather see that all buildings are 
well ventilated night and >lay. A house that is kept too tightly 



s7 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



closed will be damp and there will be moisture or frost on the 
walls. You don't get any "house sweating" in fresh air or well 
ventilated buildings. Cold houses are better than artificially 
heated ones if well ventilated. The fowls in well-aired, cold 
houses are not as easily affected by weather and temperature 
changes. 

Following we give the answers to questions 27 and 28 
mentioned in the fore part of this general introduction. A care- 
ful study of these answers will prove profitable for the experi- 
enced poultryman as well as the beginner. 



MOIST MASH RATIONS 



A. C. HAWKINS, Lancaster, Mass. 

BREEDER OF WHITE, BUFF AND BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS, 
SILVER. BUFF AND WHITE WYANDOTTES 

A. 27. A mash early in the morning, warm in winter, 
consisting of one-third com meal, one-third ground oats, one- 
third wheat middlings. To this grain 1 add 10 per cent cooked 
vegetables and 10 per cent animal food. At noon a light feed 
of wheat in litter and at night all they will eat of cracked corn 
and oats. Give free range. 

A. 28. Same as breeding stock. 



THOMAS F. RIGG, Iowa Falls, Iowa 

HOUDANS AND WHITE WYANDOTTES 

A. 27. Mixture of grains, corn, oats, wheat, barley, millet 
and buckwheat, all run through mill and cracked, not fine. Also 
a mash once a day, at noon. Beef scraps kept in hoppers in 
each breeding pen; charcoal, grit, oyster shells and bone given 
in same way. 

A: 28. Same as 27, three times a day. 



B. S. HUME, French Village, 111. 

WHITE WYANDOTTE SPECIALIST 

A. 27. Soaked oats in the morning or wheat scattered 
in the straw to keep them busy; about twice a week give a mash 
for noon meal and in cold weather feed corn at night. 

A. 28. About the same way but only twice a day. 



N. V. FOGG, Mt. Sterling, Ky. 

BREEDER OF SINGLE COMB WHITE LEGHORNS EXCLUSIVELY 

A. 27. From October on through the winter I feed equal 
parts of wheat, cracked com and oats, also other grains when 
I can get them. This is fed morning and night in litter; at noon 
I feed a mash composed of the following: 100 pounds of each, 
wheat bran, corn meal, ground oats, wheat middlings and beef 
scrap. I also use a little charcoal in the mash. Pure water, 
grit and oyster shells are kept before the birds at all times. In 
the summer I do not feed as much corn, but more wheat and 
oats. 



GEO. A. BARROWS, Groton, N. Y. 

S. C WHITE LEGHORN SPECIALIST 

A. 27. Morning: A light feed of four parts oats, one part 
corn and one part wheat. Noon: A mash mixed with milk and 
made up of three parts good bran, one part middlings, one part 
ground oats, one part com meal, one part oil meal and one part 
beef scraps, all salted. Night: A good feed of mixed grain. 

In the summer I feed grass or clover and in the winter beets, 
cabbage and green cut bone. I always furnish the hens fresh 
water, also grit and shells. 

A. 28. I feed three times a day. Morning and night I 
feed grain in litter and let the hens scratch for it and at noon I 
feed mash in a trough. 



W. B. CANDEE, De Witt, N. Y. 

WHITE WYANDOTTE SPECIALIST 

A. 27. Am using two methods now, trying to determine 
which I like. No. 1: Morning scratch feed, light, in fitter; 
noon, mash, wet, made of 100 pounds bran, 50 pounds mid- 
dlings, 50 pounds com meal; night, full feed, usually a mixture 
of cracked com, oats, wheat and barley, with small amount of 
buckwheat in cold weather. Three times a week the mash is 
omitted and a cut bone feed given, cabbage or beets for green 
stuff. Hopper contains grit, oyster shells and charcoal, before 
them all the time. 

No. 2: Same identically as No. 1, except the mash is mixed 
dry and hoppers kept full where the birds can have access to it 
all the time. 



H. H. FIKE, Libertyville, 111. 

WHITE WYANDOTTE SPECIALIST 

A, 28. Wheat, corn or oats, morning and night; mash in 
winter. Summer, all grain. Feed twice daily. 



J. L. JEFFERSON, Des Plaines, 111. 

WHITE PLYMOUTH ROCKS EXCLUSIVELY 

A. 27. Oats, wheat and mash, and in very cold weather 
some corn. 

A. 28. Same as breeding stock, oats and wheat in litter, 
and mash at night, three times a day. 



G. W. BROWN, Camden, Arkansas 

BREEDER OF WHITE WY"ANDOTTES, BARRED ROCKS, INDIAN GAMES, 

BUFF COCHINS, LIGHT BRAHMAS, LEGHORNS, PIT GAMES, 

WILD AND BRONZE TURKEYS 

A. 27. Our breeding stock is fed largely on com, wheat, 
chops, oats and shorts, with green stuff and green bones, making 
a mash in the morning with the above and some well cooked 
vegetables, such as beets or turnips, and at night grain is fed, 
with a small amount scattered in the scratching pens at noon. 



GUS. L. HAINLINE, Lamar, Missouri 

BREEDER OF WHITE WYANDOTTES 

A. 27. Oats and millet in litter in the morning; mash of 
steeped alfalfa, bran, middlings with cracklings or beef scrap at 
noon, and kaffir corn or Indian corn at night; oyster shell and 
grit, etc., in feed hoppers at all times, also a frequent feed of 
turnips or other succulent roots. 

A. 28. Have good range; feed mash of alfalfa, bran, etc. 






THE MATURE FOWLS 



at noon and plenty of corn at night, oyster shell and grit always 
handy. Winter time, feed roots, boiled potatoes, etc., once in 
a while. 



G. MONROE WOOD, Woodville, N. Y. 

WHITE LEGHORN SPECIALIST 

A. 27. We feed mixed grains consisting of wheat, crack- 
ed corn, barley and oats, equal parts by measure. This we feed 
morning and night; at noon we feed a mash composed of equal 
parts of oatmeal, corn meal, and bran, also beef scraps, 2 pounds 
to 100 hens; oil meal, J pound to 100 hens; a handful of salt to 
whole flock of 800 hens, the whole mixed to a crumbly mash 
with milk if we have it, if not water or whey. This is for summer. 

In winter we feed cut clover thoroughly steamed to wet 
up the mash with. We also feed mangel wurzels in winter. 

A. 28. The same as for breeding stock. 



soaked in hot water over night, adding one ounce of green cut 
bone for each bird. At noon and again about an hour before 
roosting time I give a feed of either oats, wheat or corn. 

A. 28. Just about the same as 27, except that I make 
the mash cold and leave out the cut clover and green bone as 
the weather grows warmer, also cutting the amount down as 
they are turned out on their range. 



AUG. D. ARNOLD, Dillsburg, Pa. 

COLUMBIAN WYANDOTTES EXCLUSIVELY 

A. 27. Wheat, corn and oats mixed at noon and night, 
with cut clover, bran and shorts with hot water and left to cool 
for morning. The wheat, corn and oats is thrown into straw 
and litter in order to make them work. 



MRS. H. W. HAND, White Hall, 111. 

WHITE WYANDOTTES EXCLUSIVELY 

A. 27. I feed my breeding and all adult stock a light feed 
of small grain, principally wheat in the Utter in the morning, 
and either steamed oats or a carefully balanced mash at noon, 
and all they will eat of mixed grain or whole corn at night. 



HARMON BRADSHAW, Lebanon, Ind. 

S. C. WHITE LEGHORN SPECIALIST 

A. 27. Hot mash in morning, mixed grains at noon and 
night; corn, wheat, oats, millet and kafnr corn. 

A. 28. Feed the mash in troughs and the grains in straw 
bo they will have to work. 



C. L. PENCYL, Bloomsburg, - Pa. 

BREEDER OF BUFF PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

A. 27. I usually feed a mixture of wheat, cracked corn, 
clipped oats, buckwheat; feed this every morning thrown among 
straw for exercise. At noon I feed greens, sometimes a bran 
mash, just wet enough to hold together; don't believe in very 
wet and sloppy feeds. At night I usually feed whole corn, some- 
times mixed with wheat. 

A. 28. The same as above, three times per day. 



W. W. KULP, Pottstown, Pa. 

BREEDER OF SINGLE AND ROSE-COMB WHITE AND BROWN LEG- 
HORNS, WHITE WYANDOTTES. BUFF AND BARRED 
ROCKS. AND PEKIN DUCKS 

A. 27 In the morning I make a mixture of bran, mid- 
dlings, corn meal and meat. Noon, wheat; evening, corn with 
greens. 

4.. 28. Same as 27. 



F. C. SHEPARD, Toledo, Ohio 

SPECIALTY BREEDER OF BUFF PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

A. 27. A warm mash in the morning made of ground 
corn, oats and wheat bran mixed with cut clover that lias been 



E. B. THOMPSON, Amenia, N. Y. 

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCK SPECIALIST 

A. 27. Wheat, cracked corn, oats and a mash made of 
ground grains. Some beef scrap or green cut bone is fed, also 
green food. The breeders have large grassy runs and plenty 
of exercise. The above mash is made of hominy, ground oats, 
wheat middlings and bran. Cabbage makes the best green 
food. 

A. 2S. Similar to breeding stock and twice a day. 



C. H. WELLES, Stratford, Conn. 

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCK SPECIALIST 

A. 27. Mash in the morning consisting of cut clover or 
alfalfa, the best prepared meat, ground oats, wheat bran and a 
very little com meal. At noon and evening, cracked corn and 
whole wheat fed in litter of straw or leaves. 

A. 28. Whole wheat, cracked corn and oats two or three 
times a day. 



BRADLEY BROS., Lee, Mass. 

nARRED PLYMOUTH ROCK SPECIALISTS 

A. 27. Mash once a day (p. m.), made of meal, ground 
wheat, bran, oatmeal or rolled oats, broken rice a id best beef 
scraps with ground clover or alfalfa scalded in boiling water; 
when cooled stir in oats, etc., to make it crumbly. Mixed 
gram, a. m. and p. m. 

A. 28. See above. Night, full feed; afternoon, mash; 
morning, grain enough to make them scratch. 



MRS. TILLA LEACH, Cheneyville, 111. 

r-CFOER OF BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

A. 27. Com, wheat, oats, etc. for breakfast fed in the 
litter, some com on cob in good weather. For supper a mash 
composed of boiled oats, table scraps, bran, corn meal, beef 
scraps, etc. In winter, or when they cannot sot green food, I 
add clover or alfalfa meal or clover blossoms, leaves, etc., from 
under the huller where the clover is hulled for seed. I find the 
latter, if from clover that did not get wet. fully as good as clover 
meal and much cheaper. 



89 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



.1. 28. Same as above, onlj twice a day except in very 
.■old weather, when extra fine grains, millet, cracked corn, etc. 
are given at noon to keep them exercising. 



GEO. H. BIE, Racine, Wis. 

BREEDER OF BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

L. 27 I feed my breeding stock wheat, oats and barley. 
( 'mil and outs ground equal parts, 200 pounds; 100 pounds bran, 
25 | ndfi oil meal, and 15 pounds alfalfa meal mixed for mash, 

and either beef scraps or green cut bone. Cabbage to pick at 
in the winter time. Grit and oyster shell before them at all 
times 

.1. 28. The grain is thrown into litter, they have to 
scratch for all they get; the mash is fed in troughs. I feed 
three times a day, mash in the morning, grain at noon and 
niu'lit. 

ROSEDALE POULTRY FARM CO., 
Greenwood, Mass. 

WHITE WYANOOTTES EXCLUSIVELY 

A. 27. About equal proportions of whole wheat, cracked 
com, barley, and oats. Swiss chard, fresh cut green bone, 
mangels, cabbages, charcoal, grit, oyster shells Also a mash 
three or four times :i week of: Bran, two parts (by weight); 




CRAMMING A CHICKEN 
The machine method of feeding chickens is extensively used on 
the continent. Some of the American packing houses have adopted this 
system of forced feeding. 

corn meal, one part; middlings, one part; cut clover one part. 
.4. 2S. Same as above. Six a. m. and ti p. m. in summer; 
Seven a. m. and 4 p. m. in winter. Mash at night. 



teur as well as the more experienced, that if he will adopt the 
method of feeding recommended by reliable firms who prepare 
ready-mixed food for poultry of every age and for all purposes, 
he will have far better success. Use these foods from the start. 
If you doubt this try one pen on the ready-mixed, prepared or 
balanced ration and another on your own plan of feeding, and 
watch results. The tendency with most poultry-men is to feed 
too much of the same kind of grain and that does more harm 
than good, and as most, of them don't experiment they continue 
this great waste with only partial success instead of complete 
success. 



O. E. SKINNER, Columbus, Kansas 

EREEDER OF BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS, BUFF AND 
PARTRIDGE COCHINS 

A. 27. A morning mash of two-thirds bran, one-tliird 
com chop or com and oat chop, fed warm through the winter 
with small cooked potatoes or turnips; meat scraps every other 
day. The other feed is mixed grains. 

A. 28. I feed mash in long troughs; the mixed grain fed 
in straw to induce as much exercise as possible. 



F. J. WEHRMEYER, Benton Harbor, Mich. 

WHITE WYANDOTTE SPECIALIST 

.4. 27. The main thing is variety and plenty, keeping in 
view always the idea of not allowing them to grow too fat, and 
give them exercise. 

.1. 28. During summer, dry feed twice daily with beef 
scraps, bone, charcoal and grit convenient always. In winter, 
usually three times daily, except in real cold weather when we 
add "morning lunch" say 9 or 10 a. m. All grain in litter. 
Mash once a day, usually evening (used to feed mash at noon, 
but now evening). Lots of cabbage and turnips, beef scraps, 
etc. in hoppers. 



DR. O. P. BENNETT, Mazon, 111. 

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCK SPECIALIST 

.4. 27. Mixed grains, wheat principally, oats and a little 
corn. Ground mash food at noon. 

A. 28. Same as above three times a day. 



A. B. TODD, Vermillion, Ohio 

S. C. WHITE LEGHORN SPECIALIST 

.4. 27. Wheat, com, oats, buckwheat, a little millet, 
fresh ground bone, beef scraps, green food in variety, cut clover, 
charcoal, a good poultry food or tonic two or three times a week, 
grit and oyster shells always before them, and plenty of fresh 
water. 

.4. 28. I feed my adult stock same as my breeding stock. 
grains scattered in litter 4 to 6 inches deep. In winter, grains 
fed morning and noon, and mash in the evening; in summer 
mash in the morning, grains noon and night. 



W. S. HARRIS, Mansfield, Mass. 

RHODE ISLAND RED SPECIALIST 

A, 27 A- 28, Mostly ready-mixed, balanced ration poul- 
try foods. The most essential things are proper housing, good 
fowls and correct feeding. Will say for the benefit of the ama- 



EDW. KNAPP OF KNAPP BROS., Fabius, N. Y. 



S. C. WHITE LEGHORN SPECIALIST 



.4. 27. We feed once a day a warm mash of ground 
corn and oats, ground meat scraps and clover meal scalded 



<J0 



THE MATURE FOWLS 



then thinned with buttermilk. Add a little oil meal, then 
wheat, bran and middlings to thicken to proper consistency 
for feeding, and a grain ration of cracked corn, oats, wheat and 
buckwheat twice a day; when no grass run we keep cabbage or 
roots (beets) constantly before them. 

A. 28. Three times a day, as above explained. 



different varieties of ground grains at night. Green food is 
kept before them at all times, such as cabbage and mangel 
wurzels. 

A. 28. I feed about the same as above and three times 
a day. 



H J BLANCHARD, Groton, N. Y. 

S. C. WHITE LEGHORN SPECIALIST 

A. 27. Wheat, cracked corn, and oats for whole grains, 
about three parts wheat, two parts com, and one part oats. 
Also use a moist mash and a dry mash composed of corn meal 
two parts, wheat bran one part, wheat middlings or ground oats 
one part, alfalfa meal one part, beef scraps one part — all by 
measure. Green food for summer is clover, and for winter 
mangel-wurzel. Crushed oyster shell, grit and charcoal before 
them at all times. 

A. 28. A light whole grain ration scattered in litter in 
the morning, next, green food. At midday moist mash to some 
and dry mash to others', fed in troughs. Toward night a full 
ration of whole grains in litter. Also use some com in the ear 
in winter to amuse and promote exercise. 



A. & E. TARBOX, Yorkville, 111. 

SILVER LACED WYANDOTTE SPECIALIST 

A. 27. A patent poultry food; balanced ration grain food, 
wheat, oats and corn. 

A. 28. Same as above, three times a day 

F. W. RICHARDSON, Hicksville, Ohio 

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS EXCLUSIVELY 

A. 27. For grains I feed soft feed once a day, usually 
in the morning. Feed wheat, corn, oats and barley mixed for 
whole grain. Feed oats and barley scattered in litter; cut 
clover hay and cabbage for bulky food mostly in winter season. 
Have plenty of grass in runs for summer. 

A. 28. Feed soft mash of corn and oats in evening, whole 
com, wheat and oats noon and evening. 



ARTHUR G. BOUCK, Frankfort, N. Y. 

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS EXCLUSIVELY 

A. 27. I feed mash about four times a week composed 
of bran, com meal, middlings, ground oats and alfalfa meal 
with a small quantity of linseed meal added. My other feed 
consists of com, cracked and whole, oats, barley, and a little 
wheat, with an occasional feeding of green cut bone. Beef 
scraps, grit, oyster shell and charcoal are fed from hoppers. 
Cabbage, and small potatoes are fed for green food in winter. 

A. 28. I feed adult stock same as breeding stock, three 
times a day in summer and twice a day in winter. When fowls 
are confined I feed the grain in litter. 



IRVING F. RICE, Courtland, N. Y. 

S. C. WHITE LEGHORN SPECIALIST 

A. 27. Wheat, oats, barley, etc., small grains in the 
morning; mash composed of meat meal, cooked vegetables and 



J. T. THOMPSON, Hope, Ind. 

BREEDER OF WHITE PLYMOUTH ROCKS AND MAMMOTH 
BRONZE TURKEYS 

A. 27. I feed my breedng stock about twice per week a 
mash food composed of equal parts of wheat bran, meal, and 
ground oats, and I add to this cooked vegetables. In mixing 
this feed be careful not to get it too wet, add just enough water 
to make the food crumbly when put into the feed troughs. 
The evening feed, as I only feed twice per day, consists of wheat, 
corn and oats, scattered well in the straw so as to make them 
work for it. During the coldest weather I feed more corn, as 
there are more heat-producing elements in corn than any other 
grain. I always keep my birds well supplied with charcoal, as 
that helps a great deal in keeping them healthy. Every fall I 
sow several fields in rye, which they have access to all winter. 
I also cover the floors of my houses every fall with about 3 inches 
of fine gravel which furnishes them with plenty of grit all winter 
and at small cost. The mornings that I don't feed the mash 
food I feed oats one morning and wheat the next. 



WILBER BROS., Petros, Tennessee 

S. C. WHITE LEGHORN SPECIALISTS 

A. 27. How and when to feed fowls in order to secure 
the best results is one of the greatest -questions for the average 
poultry keeper. We must feed our fowls so as to keep them in a 
good, healthy condition. If this is done, it naturally follows 
that we will get fertile eggs and plenty of them. While we do 
not claim our method of feeding to be the only correct one, it 
gives us satisfactory results, and we take pleasure in presenting 
it herewith, hoping that it will prove helpful to some one who 
is having trouble along this line. 

The first thing in the morning (as soon after daylight as 
possible) we give a pint of mixed grain, com, wheat, oats, and 
buckwheat, equal parts, to each twenty-five fowls; well scattered 
in the fitter of the scratching shed. If for any reason it should 
be inconvenient for the attendant to get out so early as this, 
it may be done just as well the night before, after the fowls 
have gone to roost, in order that they may begin working it out 
next morning as soon as it is light enough for them to see. At 
9 o'clock we give them water and hang a head of cabbage in each 
pen. At 11:30 they are quite hungry, having worked steadily 
all morning in the litter of the scratching-shed, and are ready 
for their noon meal, which is a soft mash, prepared as follows: 

Commeal. ground oats, wheat bran, shorts or middlings, 
and ground beef scrap, one part by measure. These are placed 
in the mash tub and thoroughly mixed. To this we add two 
quarts of clover-meal (thoroughly steamed) for each 100 fowls. 
Next comes the vegetable matter, which may be boiled potatoes. 
turnips, or cabbage, which ever is most convenient, to the 
amount of one part. Two days in the week omit the boiled 
vegetables, adding instead, the same quantity of boiled rice. 
Hire has no particular feeding value for fowls other than it pre- 
vents bowel trouble anil allows us to feed mure liberally of 
meat than we could otherwise. 

The above mixture is moistened with boiling water (in 
which a small quantity of salt has been dissolved, to a crumbly 
consistency, not sloppy) and fed while warm in winter, allowing 



01 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



it to cool before feeding in summer. Of this mash we feed what 
our birds will oat up clean in about ten minutes, or approxi- 
mately one quart to each twelve fowls. 

An hour before roosting time we feed a mixture of corn, 
wheat, oats, and buckwheat, equal parts, what they will eat, 
well scattered in Utter. During warm weather reduce the 
amount of corn and buckwheat one-half, as they are very heating. 
See to it that each pen is well supplied with good, sharp grit and 
ground oyster shell and that your fowls are kept free from 
vermin. 



J. H. JACKSON, Hudson, Mass. 

WHITE WYANDOTTE SPECIALIST 

A. 27. I practice giving dry feed and mash for the morn- 
ing meal. Am in favor of dry mash on account of labor saved. 
Give plenty of green cut grass or clover dry in winter, cut bone 
or scraps, oats and cracked corn at night. 

A. 28. In dry or hopper feeding, feed at noon green cut 
vegetable food if possible; cut bone and oats or corn at night. 



J. H. DOANE, Gouverneur, N. Y. 

CREEDBR OF S. C. BLACK MINORCAS AND WHITE WYANDOTTES 

A. 27. Wheat, oats, buckwheat and barley, in the order 
named for choice. Plenty of vegetables (ensilage from the silo 
is most welcomed by the hens), green bone fed very lightly and 
ground feed made in a stiff mash not oftener than every other 
morning. Fresh water, a liberal supply of good grit, shells and 
charcoal, I believe too little litter is supplied in most cases for 
the good of the fowls and to promote good laying. The writer 
never yet put Minorcas in the show room but tliat they were 
not only in laying condition, but actually laying, as many can 
well remember who have seen them on exhibition. 

A. 28. As above, three times daily. 



DRY FOOD RATIONS 



ROWLAND G. BUFFINTON, Somerset, Mass. 

BREEDER OF BUFF, SILVER PENCILED AND COLUMBIAN WYANDOTTES; 

BUFF AND PARTRIDGE PLYMOUTH ROCKS; BUFF ORPINC- 

TONS; RHODE ISLAND REDS; BUFF, BLACK, WHITE 

AND PARTRIDGE COCHIN BANTAMS 

A. 27. We have fed dry mash for eight years and at 
first about 90 per cent of the poultrymen called us crazy; the 
90 per cent are on my side now. 

.4. 28. Keep the dry mash before them nearly all day. 
Give a small amount of cracked corn, wheat aad oats at noon. 



U. R. FISHEL, Hope, Ind. 

WHITE PLYMOUTH ROCK SPECIALIST 

.4. 27. Corn, oats, wheat, green cut bone, sunflower and 
sorghum seed. 

A. 28. Mostly dry feed, twice a day. 



ALBERT F. DIKEMAN, So. Peabody, Mass. 

BREEDER OF WHITE tt'YAXDOTTES AND WHITE PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

.1. 27. We use self-feeding hoppers containing grit, shell, 
charcoal and good beef scraps, (substitute green bone for scraps 
from Oct. 1st to May 1st); a dry mash mixture, 50 per cent 
ground oats, 25 per cent bran, 25 per cent com meal, (by weight). 
A hard grain mixture of wheat, com, barley, kaftir com, sun- 
flower seed, buckwheat, oats, etc., ratio varying according to 
the season of the year at which it is fed, but the basis of it is 
always 50 per cent good white wheat ; no buckwheat hi summer 
and very little corn. 

A. 28. A half feed of hard grains in a. m., a full feed of 
same an hour before sundown, all fed in deep litter. In season, 
ui'cri) biiuc our noon ami some kind ol fresh natural green vege- 
table food the alternate noon, substituting steamed alfalfa and 
scrap when green bone and natural green food is unavailable. 



W. R. CURTISS & CO., Ransomville, N. Y. 

BREEDERS OF WHITE WYANDOTTES. SINGLE-COMB WHITE LEGHORNS 
AND MAMMOTH PEKIN DUCKS 

A. 27. All dry feed, dry grain and mash. 
A. 28. Feed before them at all times. 



J. C. FISHEL & SON, Hope, Ind. 

WHITE WYANDOTTE SPECIALISTS 

A. 27. Simply whole grain, a mixture; not too much 
corn. We advocate dry feed. 

A. 28. Dry feed mixture of grain twice a day only; in 
hot weather only once and that in the morning. 



CHAS. E VASS, Washington, N. J. 

E'KEDER OF SINGLE AND ROSE-COMB BUEF ORPINGTONS AND SINGLE- 
COMB WHITE AND BLACK ORPINGTONS 

A. 27. In the hatching season our diet runs as follows: 
Wheat or barley hi the morning scattered in Utter, oats at noon, 
corn at night, heated in severe cold weather. Three times per 
week green bone takes the place of oats for the noon feed; 
oyster shells, grit, etc., is always before them. 



D. F. PALMER & SON, Yorkville, III. 

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCK SPECIALISTS 

A. 27. Wheat, oats and corn, and a good grass run. 
A. 28. Keep new com on the ear before them all the 
time in the fall as soon as it is hard enough to pick from the cob. 



CHARLES G. PAPE, Fort Wayne, Indiana 

S. C. BLACK MINORCA SPECIALIST 

A. 27. Sprinkle grain in chaff; small per cent of whole 
corn, wheat, barley and sunflower seed. 
A. 28. Three times daily. 



WM. H. ROBINSON, La Fayette, Ind. 

BREEDER OF BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS AND WHITE WYANDOTTES 

A. 27. My breeding stock are properly housed, and are 
hopper fed; that is, I feed all hard grain in Utter three times a 
day; a hopper each of beef scraps, dry bran and one of cracked 



THE MATURE FOWLS 



corn, wheat and oats, ground, is before them, while they must 
exercise and keep scratching for all hard grain. A very satis- 
factory egg yield is always obtained and eggs are strong in fer- 
tility. Green food is daily fed and also green cut bone of a 
limited amount. 

A. 28. I feed about as above. Keep them well exer- 
cised and well fed with hoppers before them, and three times 
a day on hard grain in litter. 



mash food of any kind. I gave them plenty of grit and oyster 
shell and some charcoal and they laid well and eggs hatched well 
on an average, both at home and for customers. A few cus- 
tomers hatched every egg sent them. 



FRANK D. HAM, Livingstone, N. Y. 



MRS. CHAS. JONES, Paw Paw, 111. 

BREEDER OF BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS, BUFF COCHINS, 
GOLDEN BRONZE TURKEYS 

A. 27. Dry grain, oats and corn raised on the farm; 
boiled, beets and carrots, cabbage, apple peelings, potato par- 
ings, fed raw. I do not feed hot or warm mashes. 

A. 28. Twice a day on grassy yards. 



J. M. WILLIAMS, No. Adams, Mich. 

SINGLE AND ROSE-COMB BUFF ORPINGTON SPECIALIST 

.4. 27. Wheat, oats, beef scrap, oyster shell, and some 
green food early in the season before they can get to grass. 

A. 28. Morning and night. In the moming we make 
them work for it. 



BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCK SPECIALIST 

A. 27. Corn, oats, wheat, buckwheat, beef scraps and 
green food. 

A. 28. Same as above, twice a day. 



J. C. MACOMBER, Reading, Mass. 

BREEDER OF PARTRIDGE WYANDOTTES AND BARRED 
PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

A. 27. I feed them all they will eat up twice a day of 
one part corn, one part wheat, one part oats, and one part barley, 
keeping beef scraps, charcoal, grit and oyster shells in hoppers 
before them all the time. 

A. 28. During the winter season, I keep dry mash before 
them all the time composed as follows: Equal parts of bran, 
corn meal, middlings, ground oats, gluten meal and beef scrap, 
fed in hoppers. In addition to this, I feed them twice a day 
one part wheat, one part oats and two parts com. In summer 
time, I reduce the com to one part. 



OTTO O. WILD, Benton Harbor, Mich. 

WHITE WYANDOTTE SPECIALIST 

A. 27. A balanced commercial scratching food without 
corn. Clipped oats, corn, alfalfa, roots, apples, cut bone and 
beef scrap in rotation, grit and shell always. 

.4. 28. Grains in litter twice per day; green food and 
meat ration at noon, alternately. 



C. BRICAULT, M. D. V., Andover, Mass. 

BREEDER OF WHITE WYANDOTTES 

.4. 27. Wheat, oats, corn, barley, beef scraps, grit, 
oyster shells, charcoal, all in self-feeding hoppers. Cabbage 
mangels, and cut clover. Every day some hard grain thrown 
in Utter to induce scratching, for exercise. This method has 
given me more fertile eggs and strong chicks than any other 



GARDNER & DUNNING, Auburn. N. Y. 

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCK SPECIALISTS 

A. 27. Corn, wheat, buckwheat, oats, barley, beef scraps, 
cabbage, mangel wurzels, and clover. 

A. 28. Twice in summer, three times in winter. 



A. OBERNDORF, Centralia, Kansas 

BREEDER OF SINGLE-COMB WHITE LEGHORNS AND BARRED 
PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

.4. 27. Corn, wheat, bran, beef scraps, cut clover, a 
variety of vegetables, grit and charcoal, and always plenty of 
fresh water. 

.4. 2S. Same as 27, twice a day 



FRANK McGRANN, Lancaster, Pa. 

BREEDER OF SINGLE-COMB BLACK MINORCAS. BARRED PLYMOUTH 

ROCKS. WHITE WY'ANDOTTES AND SINGLE-COMB 

WHITE LEGHORNS 

.4. 27. I feed cracked com, wheat and oats, in equal 
parts in cold weather, but reduce the corn hi warm weather. 
I always throw the feed among shredded corn fodder, which I 
keep about 6 inches thick on the entire floor of the pen and 
keep meat scraps, grit, oyster shells, and charcoal before them 
all the time. 

A. 28. Same as my breeding stock. 



W. D. HOLTER.MAN, Ft. Wayne, Ind. 



WM. BYWATERS, Camden Point, Mo. 

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCK SPECIALIST 

.4. 27. During the season of 1906 I fed my breeding stock 
on a mixture of com, cracked com, wheat and oats in abund- 
ance, and a small amount of cut bone regularly without any 



BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCK SPECIALIST 

.4. 27. Everything that's good. Principally I use one 
of the prepared dry-grain poultry foods put up hi 100 pound 
sacks. Next in favor is good wheat and good oats. Very little 
com do I feed as 1 do not like its effect on the plumage. I do 
not use wet mashes. 1 feed meal scraps and greens during the 
winter. One of the item* 1 watch very closely is absolutely 



93 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



pure, fresh water at all times. Charcoal is my condition powder. 
A. 28. Adult stock I feed dry foods three times daily. 
Will try hopper feeding. 



H. E. BENEDICT, Horseheads, N. Y. 

BUFF PLYMOUTH ROCK SPECIALIST 

.4. L'7. All kinds ol whole grain in litter. Green cut bone 
when I can get it; if I can't get green bone I use beef scrap, or 
use together clover, cabbage, beets, onions, and most anything 
they like. Keep grit and oyster shell before them all the time. 
I want lots of open fresh air work for them. 

A. 28. Whole grain in litter, making them work for what 
they get, the same as breeding Mnck. I have found twice a day 
enough, if you have sufficient straw to make them work. 



ARTHUR G. DUSTON, So. Framingham, Mass. 

WHITE WYANDOTTE SPECIALIST 

A. 27. I make up a dry mash and this is hopper fed, and 
at night I feed a ration of liard grains, usually one-third each, 
crafked com, wheat and oats, in the litter. I raise mangels 
which are before them most of the time and cut clover or alfalfa 
i- ted daily. 



S. J. McQUILLIANDE, Metuchen, N. J. 

WHITE PLYMOUTH ROCK SPECIALIST 

A. 27. I feed twice a day, wheat, oats, barley and corn, 
also green bone. 



W. R. GRAVES, Springfield. Mass. 

WHITE WYANDOTTE SPECIALIST 

A. 27. A mixture of grains, beef scrap, charcoal, grit 
and oyster shell. 

A. 2S. Twice a day. 



J. W. PARKS, Altoona, Pa. 

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCK SPECIALIST 

A. 27. We, of course, feed only clean, wholesome grain; 
in fact, the best of food and care are none too good for our birds. 
At present (November) we are feeding oats in litter for break- 
fast. We prefer to feed oats at this time, because while oats 
is one of our best bone, muscle and egg making foods, being high 
in protein, as a general rule it is hard to get chickens to eat oats, 
so we give it to them for breakfast, as this is the meal when they 
have the strongest appetite. Wheat or barley for dinner; for 
supper com and wheat. We have dry mash in front of them in 
hoppers at all times. Our mash is composed of six parts com 
chop, two parts oats chop, two parts middlings, two parts wheat 
bran, one part meat meal. We also add a little flaxseed meal, 
charcoal, salt and clover, short cut. 

A. 28. We have no iron-clad rules for feeding our stock. 
As to what and how we feed, we are governed by the weather, 
the condition of the birds we are feeding, etc. We, of course, 
see that they get a ration for winter that contains a little more 
carbohydrates, or fat and heat-forming foods. We keep our 
mash before them in hoppers at all times, but make them work 
for their grain in Utter in the scratching shed. This is not so 
necessary where our chickens have range. 



C. H. WYCKOFF, Aurora, N. Y. 

S. C WHITE LEGHORN SPECIALIST 

A. 27. A good variety of the various grains obtainable, 
a little meat food of some kind, green grass, clover, or vegetables 
daily. 

.1. 28. Same'as'above. feed three times a day. 



W. L. DAVIS, WILLOW BROOK FARM, 
Berlin, Conn. 

BREEDER OF S. C BUFF. BLACK AND WHITE ORPINGTONS 

A. 28. Our adult stock is fed twice each day at the pre- 
sent time. Their food consists entirely of oats, wheat and 
barley. We feed but little corn as this has a tendency to fatten 
our stock, and we do not get the best results from same. 




94 



HOT WEATHER PROBLEMS 

FIGHT INSECT PESTS UNCEASINGLY— THE NECESSITY OF SHADE AND PURE WATER EMPHASIZED 



MRS. S. E. TITTER1NGTON 




T seems trite to say that each season lias its own 
peculiar conditions and needs. Yet, to be suc- 
cessful in poultry raising, it is indispensable that 
one study and understand the requirements of 
each changing period. 

One problem that comes to the front in the 
heated term is a question of ownership. Do we 
own the poultry houses, or have the lice and mites taken 
possession? When the sun's rays grow torrid and the ground 
becomes heated, then wooden walls absorb heat and insect 
enemies have their hour of triumph if they are not fought to 
a finish. Troubles develop with lightning-like rapidity at 
this season, and the hoped for success vanishes into thin air 
if proper precautions have not been taken. 

It is not necessary to dwell on the methods of warfare 
which have proved effective in conquering insect pests. Every 
poultry paper has enumerated them scores of times. The 
thought emphasized here is the folly of carelessness and neglect. 
For the careless and heedless poultry raiser is with us, and 
I fear always will be to the end of the chapter. If the con- 
sequences of this carelessness could be confined to the guilty 
ones, it would not matter so much. A rather extreme case 
recently under observation will illustrate this point. 

AN EXTREME CASE 

A certain poultry raiser (a woman, I am sorry to say) 
had her surroundings in as bad a condition as is possible to 
imagine. The yard was so low that except in a dry season or 
when not frozen in winter, it was a mud puddle. The poultry 
house was unworthy the name. It leaked through every inch 
of the broken roof; one side was entirely open, the roosts were 
too high for the fowls to reach easily and the floor was of dirt 
and the accumulated droppings of years. In wet weather 
water covered the whole area. Mites had taken possession of 
the dilapidated old shell, and preyed on the helpless fowls. 
When the poor birds were dying too fast, the woman would 
empty a coal-oil can as far as she could reach, which only checked 
the pests temporarily. A frosty, wet winter spent in such 
damp, unwholesome quarters gave the flock cold, and, as spring 
opened, they caught the roup from fowls purchased from a 
huckster's wagon. An expert who was called to see the aggre- 
gation of swelled heads, blind eyes and running nostrils, gave 
some strenuous advice in regard to getting rid of the entire lot, 
but the advice was not followed. Quite a number survived the 
epidemic, though many died. The disease spread to the Hock 
of turkeys, taking every one. The living fowls laycd a few eggs, 
and by buying more eggs from her neighbors, this woman 
manages to hatch out a good many chickens each year, only to 
have them take the roup later and die. The ground has become 
so saturated with the germs of the disease that of late men 
hired to work about the premises have carried I lie germs to 
their homes on their feet, infecting flocks as far as I wo miles 
away. These outside birds develop roup in its most malignant 
form. Who can say this woman's carelessness is not a public 
menace? 

SHADE MOST IMPORTANT 

To those without trees in their poultry yards the ques- 
tion of shade becomes a serious one. In this case, as in others, 
necessity becomes the mother of invention. Shelters can be 



erected of boards but these are not so good as cloth or canvas, 
as the wood absorbs heat, but they are far better than nothing. 
Cloth stretched upon stakes, leaving an opening on all sides 
for the circulation of air, is particularly good. 

By taking forethought in the spring, sunflowers and other 
tall growing vegetation may be planted, which will afford grate- 
ful shade when the hot days come. If a corn-field is accessible, 
the fowls will have an ideal summer home, with shade and 
animal food to be had for the scratching. 

The problem of fresh water in hot weather needs careful 
consideration. The water fountains or troughs must not stand 
in the sun, or the water will become rank poison. Frequent 
replenishing is indispensable to the best interests of the fowls. 
This means work, but what success can be obtained without 
effort and plenty of it? 



CONDITIONING BREEDING STOCK 

A PROBLEM REQUIRING INTELLIGENT ATTEN- 
TION BUT NOT DIFFICULT TO SOLVE— NAT- 
URE'S CONDITIONS MUST BE FURNISHED— 
THE UTILITY OF EXERCISE IN PURE AIR- 
HOW TO DECIDE THE FEEDING QUESTIONS 

H. A. NOURSE 

The problem of conditioning breeding birds is by no means 
a difficult or intricate one. Any poultryman worthy the name 
selects each season, birds of the development and style that 
denote vigor and constitution, while selecting the shape re- 
quired for the variety in hand. It is a fact that birds of stand- 
ard size and shape are not produced year after year by any but 
healthy, vigorous stock and the breeder cannot avoid protecting 
the constitution of his strain when following the course 
necessary to produce good representatives of his variety. Con- 
stitutional vigor is the source of strong procreative power and 
is built up only by careful breeding for a term of years. 

With this characteristic well established it remains only to 
maintain good health and normal condition of flesh to produce 
eggs which will bring forth chicks that will five, thrive and 
make a profit. In this connection it is safe to remember that 
appearance, although a good indicator of health, is by no means 
infallible and a bird may be in the best of condition, apparently, 
yet unable to produce a fertile egg. Supply the food and con- 
ditions required and trust to nothing less, whatever the appear- 
ances, to bring about the desired results. 

Even' effort should be made to conserve the energy and 
maintain the strength during the whiter when conditions are 
largely artificial. This does not mean that all profit from the 
birds in a practical way must lie lost or that a hen may nut 
lay well during the winter and produce strong, fertile eggs ill 
the spring. It is only necessary to build up day by day the 
vitality which egg production tears down, that the hen shall 
not be the loser. The best rule to follow during the winter is 
this: Provide as well as possible the exercise, fresh air and 
foods that the hen would get if allowed her freedom on a gra— 
range in summer. 

Of these, exercise is the most difficult to obtain. The dry 
grain may be fed in the scratching material and the methods 
of dry feeding now becoming popular, enable the feeder to get 



'.<:■ 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



the most exercise for the grain fed. As the hen cannot range 
wide, she must dig deep and the scratching material upon the 
floors therefore should be deep and frequently renewed to keep 
it light and clean. 

Fresh air is easy to obtain and costs nothing; yet it is rigidly 
excluded from some poultry houses where the moisture from 
the bird's breath, condensing upon the cold walls of the build- 
ing, keeps the interior damp and the fowls unhealthy and the 
caretaker condemns the house as unfit, and the birds as deli- 
cate. But let the windows on the south side be opened wide 
whenever the temperature outside is not below twenty-five 
degrees above zero, Fahr., or open less in proportion as the 
cold increases and the moisture will disappear as fast as it 
collected, leaving the house dry and comfortable. 

In severely cold weather or when winds drive snow or rain 
into the house, light frames filled with cotton cloth may be 
fitted into the space made by dropping or raising a window a 
few inches, admitting plenty of air, but preventing a draft. 
The use of these frames will make it unnecessary to entirely 
close the house even in the coldest weather. There is but little 
danger from the cold so long as the birds are at work and ex- 
ercise not obtained in fresh air loses half its value. 

These are important factors. Feed as carefully and as 
scientifically as you may, you cannot achieve success without 
them . 

We cannot lay down a rule for feeding. What will pro- 
duce good results in one yard will not always in another, be- 
cause of varying conditions. Sufficient information upon the 
feeding values of all commercial foods and their effects upon the 
birds under various conditions has been published that a little 
experience and intelligent observation will enable one to com- 
pound the ration best adapted for his use. 

The problem of supplying green food in cold weather lias 
been practically eliminated; clover and alfalfa cured green, 
and mange] wurzcls and cabbage may be had throughout the 
winter and furnish the required elements in an acceptable form. 

Birds constitutionally strong, provided with the foods and 
surrounded by the conditions intended for them by nature will 
produce offspring that will live and thrive. 



FALL AND WINTER WORK 

DISINFECTION AND RENOVATION OF POULTRY 
BUILDINGS AND RUNS— WHITEWASH, HOW TO 
MAKE AND APPLY IT— SOWING GRAINS IN 
RUNS— RAT-PROOF FLOORS— FALL AND WINTER 
CARE OF HRF.EDING AND LAYING STOCK— HOUSE 
VENTILATION IN COLD WEATHER — IMPORT- 
ANCE OF FRESH AIR— PREVENTION OF DISEASE 

PRINCE T. WOODS, M. D. 

September is a good month in which to undertake the 
fall poultry-house cleaning and general disinfection of the en- 
tire poultry plant. The chickens are or should be w-ell grown, 
and the buildings and runs are in need of renovating after 
the hot, humid, dogday weather. So far as possible the 
buildings should all be put in order to make ready for housing 
the stock in winter quarters during the month of October or 
early in November. 

A great many of the correspondents who write to the R. 
P. J. seem very much in doubt as to the simplest and best 
means of disinfecting or renovating their poultry plants, and the 
majority of them are inclined to make very difficult work of 



what is a comparatively simple matter. The work must be 
done thoroughly to be effective but there is nothing mysterious 
or complex about it. 

FUMIGATING WITH BURNING SULPHUR 

On some plants where there has been contagious disease 
or where lice and mites have been allowed to multiply in great 
numbers, it is advisable to thoroughly fumigate the poultry 
buildings. One of the cheapest and most generally practiced 
plans is to fumigate with burning sulphur, using either the com- 
mercial sulphur candles or the common flowers of sulphur, 
burning the same in shallow pans. As a rule one sulphur candle 
or a quarter of a pound will serve to fumigate a room 10 feet 
square and not over 7 feet high. Fumigation with burning 
sulphur is one of the most economical and effective proceedings 
in the work of disinfecting and sweetening poultry houses. 

When fumigating every living thing must be excluded 
from the building and all doors and windows tightly closed, 
and cracks and crevices plugged up. The sulphur or sulphur 
candles should be placed in small metal pans which should 
rest in quantity of moist ashes or earth, and should be so placed 
that they cannot possibly set fire to the building. A little 
blotting paper soaked in a saturate solution of saltpetre, and 
then thoroughly dried, when used as a wick placed in the center 
of a little heap of flowers of sulphur will prove an effective means 
of quickly setting fire to the sulphur. Simply light the end 
of the blotting paper and it will soon fire the sulphur. 

After the sulphur is lighted and burning well leave the 
building and close it up tightly, first making sure that all live 
animals are out of the building. Leave the house closed for 
from 12 to 24 hours, then open all doors and windows wide and 
let the whole building air thoroughly. It should air out for 
two or three days before stock is allowed to use it. At this 
season of the year it will do the birds no harm to roost out 
of doors in roosting coops, boxes, or in an open shed or even 
in the trees, though if it is absolutely necessary they could be 
removed to another building while their quarters are being over- 
hauled. 

After fumigating remove six to eight inches of the top 
earth of the floors of the poultry buildings where earth floors are 
used, and cany this to some portion of the farm remote from 
the poultry buildings. If wood or cement floors are used re- 
move all earth, dirt and litter and scrub up with hot water and 
plenty of yellow soap. Good results will be fond to follow the 
use of one fluid ounce of creolin in each three-gallon bucket 
of wash water. 

WHITEWASH-HOW TO MAKE AND USE IT 

After fumigating and carting out the polluted top earth, 
dirt anil old litter material from the floors, give the interior of 
the house a thorough wiiitewashing with good, freshly made 
whitewash applied if possible while still warm from slaking. 
A good wiiitewash for this purpose can be made by slaking 
quick lime with just a sufficient amount of water to make a 
thick paste, adding a pint of melted lard or other grease and a 
cupful of common table salt to each half bushel of lime while 
slaking. This lime paste should be further reduced with water 
to a consistency of thick cream. One fluid ounce of creolin may 
be added to each three-gallon bucketful of whitewash when it 
is ready to use. Apply with an old broom or coarse brush, 
slapping it on freely so that it will work well into the cracks. 

Many poultrymen object to whitewash in the poultry-house 
because it rubs off. A receipt for a wash that will not "rub" 
is as follows: One peck of lime slaked in boiling water and kept 
just covered by the water while slaking. Strain through coarse 
cloth. Add two quarts of fine salt dissolved in warm water 



96 



THE MATURE FOWLS 



one pound of rice meal boiled in water to a thin paste, one- 
quarter pound of whiting, and half a pound of glue dissolved in 
warm water. Mix all thoroughly and let stand covered for two 
or three days; stir occasionally. Heat the mixture before 
using. 

Be sure to wear old clothes and old shoes when whitewash- 
ing, as the lime is sure to injure cloth and leather. It is a good 
plan to wear a pair of automobile goggles to protect the eyes, 
and gauntleted gloves to keep the lime off the hands. Do not 
be afraid to put the wash on freely. 

If you object to whitewash, the house can be freshened up 
and rid of vermin by fumigation with sulphur, or painting with 
paint or any of the wood preservatives; or spray the interior 
of the house with kerosene emulsion or with hot soapy water 
containing three ounces of creolin to the gallon of water. What- 
ever method you employ, be sure to air and dry out the house 
thoroughly before you permit the fowls to return to it. Never 
shut fowls up closely at night in a house that has been fumigated 
with sulphur during the day, the results will be d'sastrous. 

The roosts and droppings boards should now receive atten- 
tion and it is well to paint them with a good liquid lice killer, 
or else use a home-made lice paint made of kerosene in which 
has been dissolved all it will take up of crude naphthalene 
flakes, painting this thoroughly and freely on to tfie roosts and 
dropboards. 

All nests should be taken out of the building and white- 
washed inside and out after they have been thoroughly cleaned. 
Or if you object to whitewash they should be cleansed with 
yellow soap and hot water, and then shellaced or treated with 
wood preservative. Leave them out in the sunshine to thor- 
oughly dry before they are returned to the building. After the 
whitewashing or cleansing is completed fill in the floor with good 
fresh fairly coarse gravel from which the larger stones have been 
removed to replace the earth which has been removed. 

FRESHENING UP THE RUNS OR YARDS 

The runs or yards should next receive attention. They 
should first be swept up or scraped to remove the greater part 
of the accumulated droppings, which should be used as ferti- 
lizer on some other part of the farm. Then give the runs or 
yards a thorough top dressing with~ thoroughly air-slaked 
lime. This should be spaded in or plowed under and the 
ground leveled with a brush, harrow or rake. Seed down 
with winter rye or wheat and rake it in, and then run a roller 
over the ground to smooth it. Keep the poultry out of the 
seeded portion of the runs until the grain sprouts are at least 
two inches above the ground. 

Care taken in the disinfection and renovation of poultry 
houses and runs in this manner will well repay the time and 
labor involved, as there will be practically no danger from 
disease where the quarters are given thorough treatment. In 
the spring the runs should again be scraped or brushed clean, 
the ground turned over and seeded down again to wheat, rye 
or oats. With the runs and houses treated in this maimer the 
fowls will stand confinement well and illness will be conspicuous 
only by its absence. 

In using air-slaked lime be sure that it is thoroughly slaked. 
Do not use it on the droppings boards, in the dust bath or in 
brooders or brood coops, as the fine particles of lime dust are 
very irritating to the fowls' respiratory organs, and its use in 
such a manner is liable to result in catarrhal disorders. Use 
either fine sand or fine ground land plaster mixed with loam on 
the droppings boards, or sawdust may be used as an absorbent 
if removed frequently. 

All brood coops, brooders and other chicken fixtures should 
be thoroughly scraped, cleaned and whitewashed or washed 
with hot soap suds and allowed to dry in the sun before they 



are put away for the season. We prefer to treat all brood coops 
to a good coat of whitewash on the inside. Brooders are scrub- 
bed out with hot soap suds and afterwards rinsed with clear 
water. Occasionally creolin is used in the proportion of half 
an ounce to each bucket of water used for cleansing the brooders, 
but unless there has been sickness among the chicks it is not 
absolutely necessary to use it. Brooders are only whitewashed 
after the wood has become discolored and darkened. 

RAT-PROOF CEMENT FLOORS 

September will also be found to be an ideal month for 
erecting necessary poultry buildings, as they will have ample 
opportunity to dry out before winter sets in. During the past 
season we have had a great many requests from those about to 
build, for directions for making a rat-proof floor for poultry 
houses. The most satisfactory means we know of is to put in a 
well made cement floor. 

The best plan is to dig out a pit about 10 inches deep from 
6 to 8 inches wider on all sides than you intend the poultry 
house to be. This should be filled with stone and broken rock 
to within about one inch of the surface. Place boards around 
the outer edge to confine the cement. On top of this founda- 
tion build the cement floor. Th.e best Portland cement should 
be mixed with coarse sharp sand in the proportion of one bushel 
of cement to each two bushels of sand, wet with just sufficient 
water to make a thick stiff mixture. The cement must not be 
wet and sloppy. This should be well tamped or beaten down 
from the top, using a flat spade or a piece of plank for the pur- 
pose. Build up two or three inches of cement in this manner 
on top of the foundation of crushed rock, then add a finish coat- 
ing about one inch thick made of equal parts by measure, cement 
and coarse sand, this last coat being well smoothed off and the 
sills of the building set firmly into it before it hardens. Cover 
the job over until the cement is firmly set. When it is hard go 
about putting up the studs and the balance of the frame of the 
building in the ordinary manner. If the job is well done it 
will make an absolutely rat-proof house and one that will always 
be a satisfaction to the owner. 

Three or four inches of sand, sandy loam or fine gravel 
should be filled in on top of the cement floor, the fitter material 
being placed on top of this before it is occupied by the fowls. 

Another quite satisfactory plan of making a rat-proof 
building where an earth floor is desired is to set the building on 
posts, run a 12-inch wide board down into the ground on these 
posts so that not more than 2 inches of it projects above the sur- 
face of the ground on all sides of the building. From this run 
2 or 3 inches below the surface of the ground a 12-ineh wide 
strip of quarter-inch mesh poultry wire projecting outward and 
downward from the 12-inch board to six or eight inches below 
the ground level. When the earth is replaced after putting 
this board and wire screen in position see that it is well and 
firmly tamped into position. Rats will very rarely burrow 
into a building so protected. 

BREEDING AND LAYING STOCK 

November first should find the breeding and laying stock 
safely housed in their permanent winter quarters. If the grow- 
ing chickens have been properly cared for during the summer 
and early fall the fust pullets should lie well advanced in laying, 
while the later ones are making rapid progress toward begin- 
ning their work as egg producers. The yearlings and two- 
year-olds should haVe finished or be nearly through their molt 
and should be plump and in good condition to resist the rigors 
of the coming winter weather. Birds that have received good 
Care through the summer and autumn, if properly housed and 
fed on a variety of good wholesome food, can be depended upon 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



to give satisfactory returns during the winter months. If they 
have been neglected and do not go to winter quarters in good 
condition, there will be little hope of getting them down to 
work until Christmas time or after. 

IMPORTANCE OF FRESH AIR 

Care must be taken not to shut these birds up too closely. 
An long as mild weather lasts the closed houses should be run 
as wide open as possible, at the same time taking due precau- 
tions to avoid drafts about the roosts. Those who are for- 
tunate enough to possess one of the many good types of fresh 
air or open front poultry buildings will not find it necessary 
to give much thought to the matter of ventilation. The poultry- 
man making use of the ordinary types of closed poultry houses 
will find this matter of ventilation one of vital importance at 
this season of the year. Where so-called fresh air or open 
front houses are used the birds are sure of a plentiful supply 
of fresh air at all times, and this is of the greatest importance 
in the prevention of late fall and early winter diseases. An 




AN ENGLISH BROODER HOUSE 

abundance of fresh air at all times is absolutely necessary for 
keeping the birds in the best condition of health and vigor. 
If one begins the practice of shutting the fowls up tightly in 
a closed house without due regard to proper airing at frequent 
intervals the birds are almost certain to develop catarrhal colds 
which later ina\ result in roup. I'hin drafts of cold air in a 
close house will sow the seed for more sickness during a single 
night than would ever make its appearance were the birds 
allowed to roost out in the open exposed to the elements, and 
In,, close confinement in any tight, ill-ventilated house is equally 
certain to be productive of disastrous results. The windows 
of these tight houses should be kept open night and day as long 
as weather will permit. When severe stormy weather comes, 
the windows may be closed at night to protect the fowls on the 
roosts, but should be thrown wide open for the greater part 
of the day, particularly when the sun can shine in. Even at 
night it will be better if some of the windows are left open and 
provided with muslin or burlap screens to keep out the storms. 
Failure to properly air a closed house results in dampness or 
"house sweating," and fowls cannot thrive in a damp poultry 
house. Houses that front south or a little east of south are 
usually the most satisfactory winter quarters. 

MOVING FROM CLOSED HOUSE TO FRESH AIR QUARTERS 

During the past two winters we have made it a practice 
to keep the windows of our closed poultry houses partly open 



both day and night. Last winter at the time of the most se- 
vere weather we had occasion to purchase a number of breed- 
ing birds tliat had been kept in a closed poultry house. This 
necessitated removing a number of birds from one pen of our 
own closed poultry house to a fresh air house of the Tolman 
pattern. About half of the purchased birds were placed in 
another Tolman house. In spite of the fact that the new- 
birds had been accustomed to tightly closed quarters not one 
case of sickness developed, not even a case of snuffles. Two 
cockerels that had been washed and prepared for the show 
and kept for nearly two weeks in a heated room were also taken 
direct from their sliipping coops and placed in these open front 
buildings with no ill effect noticeable; in fact, all of these birds 
seemed to improve daily in health and vigor and continued 
throughout the season in the best possible breeding condition. 
We believe our home stock was also benefitted by the move 
into fresh air quarters. 

ROOSTING OUT OF DOORS IS NOT RECOMMENDED 

There is a vast difference between using well ventilated or 
open front, fresh air houses, and permitting birds to roost out 
in the open. Fresh air is essential to life and health. It is 
one of the best tilings that we have, but even our best pos- 
sessions may be abused, and it is sometimes possible to have 
too much of a good tiling. While roosting out of doors in the 
trees may be productive of no harm during summer weather 
and early autumn, we firmly believe that much harm may re- 
sult by permitting them to continue to occupy these airy perches 
after the severe, changeable late fall and winter weather sets in. 
Birds kept under such conditions could not be expected to give 
satisfactory returns in either eggs or fertility. With an open 
front house they have all the advantages of the pure air ob- 
tained by sleeping in the open and none of the disadvantages. 
They are well protected by the tight roof overhead and the 
snug back and sides of their roosting quarters. The cold, 
chilling winds cannot reach them and storms cannot injure 
them. 

ADAPTING TIGHT CLOSED HOUSES TO FRESH AIR PLAN 

Of the many types of fresh air poultry houses the follow- 
ing rank as the best examples of satisfactory buildings for 
breeding and laying stock: The Maine Experiment Station 
curtain-front poultry house, the Tolman S by 14 colony fresh- 
air poultry house, the J. H. Robinson pattern of cheap poultry 
house with wide doors which open the entire front, and Dr. 
Bricault's convertible "new idea" poultry house possessing a 
two-part door in the front of each pen, the upper half of which 
may be made to give place to a burlap or muslin screen. Nearly 
all closed poultry houses may be adapted to the fresh air plan 
by simply substituting a screen of heavy unbleached muslin 
for the upper half of one window in the south front of each pen, 
provided the house possesses sufficient depth to permit the birds 
to roost in the rear portion without being exposed to direct 
drafts. 

No one need fear frosted combs or wattles in a well aired 
house, if the birds have been accustomed to open windows 
or open front quarters from the beginning of winter. The only 
cases of frosted wattles that we have had during the past two 
winters occured in close buildings where the windows were left 
closed at night through oversight on the part of the attendant. 
The combs were not touched because our birds have rose combs 
that are not liable to be frosted. 

Of equal importance to a plentiful supply of fresh air is 
a liberal ration of good, sound, wholesome food in reasonable 
variety, and plenty of pure, fresh water. There is no neces- 
sity for a veiy elaborate ration. Simple food formulas prop- 



HS 



THE MATURE FOWLS 



erly applied have been found to give equally as good results 
as any of the elaborate mixtures adopted by those who have a 
passion for so-called scientific feeding. 

EXERCISE IS IMPORTANT 

As birds in winter are more or less confined to the poultry 
house we must supply an incentive to exercise to keep them 
out of mischief in the form of acquiring bad habits, like feather 
pulling and egg eating, as well as to keep them in good con- 
dition with keen appetites. The best exerciser is an abundance 
of deep, clean litter. Sweet new straw undoubtedly makes the 
very best Utter material, though leaves, chaff, and even planer 
shavings may be used. Hay is not desirable for litter, since 
the birds are almost certain to eat it and become crop bound. 
Litter material must always be clean and sweet, never mouldy, 
musty, damp and rotten litter will give rise to canker, chicken 
pox, and other diseases even more dangerous to the life and 
welfare of your flock. Prevention of sickness by good manage- 
ment is far preferable to treatment and cure after disease is 
established. . 

DRY FEEDING-A SIMPLE RATION 

One of the simplest and most successful food rations is a 
combination of two or more good sound grains, fed together 
with a plentiful supply of animal and vegetable food. Two- 
thirds dry, sweet, sound, cracked corn or whole corn mixed with 
one-third heavy clipped white oats (wheat or barley may be 
substituted for the oats if the price makes it advisable), makes 
an excellent ration for both laying and breeding stock. It may 
be given in a food hopper or the grains may be fed separately 
in different compartments of a trough or hopper, or used as 
daily scraching food rations in'deep litter. The method of feed- 
ing is adaptable to suit the convenience of the feeder. Where 
the birds are hopper fed it is advisable to occasionally scatter 
a few handfuls of grain in the litter. This is best done daily 
at watering time, and we usually make it a practice with our 
hopper fed birds to take a few handfuls of whole grain from 
the food hoppers and scatter it in the Utter when we make our 
morning round to .fill the water pails. For these birds we keep 
a food hopper containing mixed grain in one compartment and 
pure beef scrap in another before them all the time. They also 
have a plentiful supply of grit, oyster shell, charcoal and pure 
water. Vegetable food Uke raw potatoes, raw turnips, beets, 
cabbages, and any other available green food is fed freely, as 
much as experience has taught us that they wiU clean up dur- 
ing the day. If the last supply was not promptly cleaned up 
they get less at the next feeding. This plan of feeding has 
given quite as good results as any other that we have tried, and 
it is a plan followed by many poultrymen who make their liveli- 
hood by supplying fresh eggs to the markets. 

SIMPLE RATION POPULAR FOR HALF A CENTURY 

There is nothing new about this simple method of poultry 
feeding. As long ago as 1864 the State Board of Agriculture 
of Massachusetts advocated a similar ration for laying fowls. 
We quote the following from an article by Mr. E. A. Samuels 
published in the report of the Board of Agriculture for that year: 

"The poultry house prepared and the flock selected, the 
farmer should see that they have proper care and food; that 
unhealthy fowls are restored or removed; that those hens which 
incline to sit are provided with eggs; and that the chickens when 
hatched are taken proper care of. Fowls in confinement re- 
quire an abundance of pure water, ashes to dust in, and nourish- 
ing food. Of grain, equal parts each of Indian corn and oats 
is very acceptable; at least three times a week scraps of meat 
should be thrown in to them, and a supply of crushed oyster 



shells or clam shells should be accessible at all times. Green 
sods also thrown frequently into the fowl-yard will be of great- 
advantage. These few attentions are all that are necessary 
with laying hens." 

These simple rules for poultry feeding have continued to 
give satisfactory results for nearly half a century. They have 
been improved upon by keeping a supply of beef scrap always 
before the birds instead of throwing in meat scraps three times 
a week, and prepared green foods together with raw vegetables 
are now freely used to supply a substitute for the green sods 
that are not always obtainable. 

Another excellent dry food ration for winter feeding is the 
plan of keeping before the birds all the time a supply of dry 
mash consisting of one-fourth corn meal, one-fourth beef scraps, 
and one-half wheat bran thoroughly mixed together and fed 
dry in boxes or hoppers. In addition to this either two or three 
regular feeds are given daily, of dry grains scattered in the Utter, 
consisting either of a mixture of cracked corn, oats, wheat and 
barley, or the grains fed separately, making corn about 50 per 
cent of the total amount fed. Green food, consisting of cut 
clover or alfalfa or else a supply of fresh raw vegetables, is fed 
freely. The cut clover or alfalfa may be fed dry, but gives 
best results, as a rule, if scalded and lightly seasoned with salt. 

MAINE EXPERIMENT STATION RATION 

A third and more elaborate dry ration is that recommended 
by the Maine Experiment Station. The method of feeding breed- 
ing and laying birds in winter employed at this station is as 
follows : 

Early in the morning each one hundred hens receive an 
allowance of four quarts of screened cracked corn scattered in 
the Utter. The Utter consists of clean straw 6 or 8 inches deep. 
At ten o'clock the birds have another feed in the Utter consist- 
ing of two quarts of wheat and two quarts of oats. No other 
regular feeding is done. A food trough with a slatted front 
extends along one side of the pen. In this is kept a supply of 
mixed dry meals, the so-caUed dry mash. Tins dry meal mix- 
ture is composed of the following materials: 200 pounds wheat 
bran; 100 pounds corn meal; 100 pounds wheat middlings; 100 
pounds of either gluten meal or dry brewer's grain; 100 pounds 
linseed meal; 100 pounds beef scrap. These meals are thor- 
oughly mixed together before being used in the food trough. 
The trough is never allowed to remain empty. Oyster shell, 
dry cracked bone, grit and charcoal are kept accessible to the 
fowls at aU times. Pure water is always before them. They 
are also given a supply of mangolds or other raw vegetable food, 
and have an allowance of about five pounds of cut clover fed 
dry daily to each one hundred birds. 

The Maine Station reports that birds fed on this ration 
average to lay twelve dozen eggs each during the year, this 
average being for the entire flock. This station lias in one yard 
SO birds each one of which has laid from 200 to 250 eggs in a 
year on tins same ration. 

There is less labor involved in feeding hens according to 
the dry method than in any other plan of caring for them, and 
this appeals strongly to many poultry keepers who cannot devote 
much time to their birds. To date all experiments tend to show 
that the results in fresh eggs in winter are quite as satisfactory 
where the birds are fed by the dry methods as they are where 
moist mashes are used. There are, however, many who still 
adhere to the moist mash plan of feeding and for the benefit of 
those who prefer this method we give a few of the least elaborate 
and most satisfactory moist mash rations. 

MOIST MASH RATIONS 

In feeding moist mashes it apparently makes little differ- 
ence whether the mash is fed in the morning, at noon or at 



LOf C. 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



night, although the birds fed on an evening inash will undoubt- 
edly take much more exercise and be more easily kept in good 
condition than those that receive a heavy feed of bulky warm 
mash earlier in the day, which disposes them to seek some quiet 
place to sleep off the effects of the hearty food with which they 
gorged themselves. 

A good moist mash may be made of four parts (by measure) 
of wheat bran, one part ground oats, one part ground barley, 
one part meat meal or beef scrap, and one ounce of salt. This 
should be thoroughly mixed together dry and wet up with 
warm skim milk or water. It should never be made sloppy, 
should always be dry and crumbly, and may be fed warm but 
never hot. Feed in clean troughs as much as the birds will eat 
up cleanly and quickly in from fifteen to twenty minutes. The 
hi her meals lor the day should consist of grain scattered in the 
litter, fifty per cent corn, and wheat or oats, about twenty-five 
per cent each, fed separately or mixed together. Usually two 
feeds a day will be sufficient, one feed of mixed grain in the 
litter and one feed of mash at night. Some prefer to give three 
meals, allowing a second feeding of dry grain in the litter at noon. 
Green food, pure water, eliareoal, shells and grit should be 
freely supplied. The only important variation in other moist 
mash methods of feeding is in the composition of the mash 
itself. 

A commonly used and very satisfactory mash is made up 
of equal parts bran, corn meal and middlings, with 10 per cent 
beef scrap and 15 per cent scalded cut clover or alfalfa. 

Another excellent mash may be made of equal parts corn 
meal, ground oats and bran, mixed with warm sweet skim milk 
into a moist crumbly mash. Ten to fifteen per cent of scalded 
cut clover or alfalfa should be added to this mash to give bulk 
as well as supply desirable green food. 

SOME SUGGESTIONS 

There are many other very satisfactory food rations thai 
will give good results in winter egg production. Any one of 
the above rations can be depended upon to give satisfaction if 
properly fed. The chief requirements are that the food be 
wholesome, that there lie a reasonable variety, a plentiful sup- 
ply of food to keep the birds in good condition, and sufficient 
incentive to exercise to keep them busy. Whether two or three 
meals are given daily is :> matter of comparatively little import- 
ance where regular meals arc fed. Personally we prefer but two 
regular meals a day for breeding or laying stock, and where the 
birds are hopper lid we aim to keep a little grain in the Utter 
In encourage them to scratch. As a rule moist mashes should 
not be ted oftener than five times a week, as the stock is liable 
to tire of it and so get out of Condition. Good pure beef scrap 
may with safety be kept before the birds all the time, either in 
combination with the dry mash or separately as may be desired, 
lint fresh meat, blood, or green cut bone should be given spar- 
ingly and seldom led oftener than three times a week, the amount 
fed and the frequency of feeding depending chiefly upon the 
condition of the birds as indicated by the droppings. Any ten- 
dency to watery looseness of the bowels indicates the desirability 
of cutting down the supply of fresh meat food. Looseness of 
the bowels in fowls fed on moist mash calls for less bran or less 
meat food and more middlings. If the looseness persists pow- 
dered charcoal should be added to the mash, or the moist mash 
food should be stopped entirely and the fowls put on a dry grain 
ration until the droppings again become normal. Fowls fed on 
moist mashes will frequently void large quantities of wet drop- 
pings, while at the same time laying heavily. With such birds 
it will fie common to find that they are laying large watery 
eggs that cannot be depended upon to hatch well. Dry fed 
birds produce plenty of good, large sized eggs that are full 
meated and never watery. 



In conclusion, we want to say most emphatically that no 
matter what sort of a ration you may now be feeding, if it gives 
you satisfactory results in good large eggs and plenty of them, 
with a fair percentage of fertility, do not drop your present plan 
of feeding for the sake of adopting one that is new to you simply 
because it is giving good results for others. Where desirable 
results are being attained it is well to "make haste slowly" 
when it comes to a matter of changing your method of feeding. 



VEGETABLE OR GREEN FOOD 

IS AS ESSENTIAL AS GRAIN OR ANIMAL FOOD— THE 
MOST SUITABLE VEGETABLES FOR POULTRY AND 
HOW THEY SHOULD BE GROWN AND FED -HOW 
TO "RAISE CHICKENS AND A GARDEN, TOO." 

J. D. STEVENS, Denver, Colo. 

The proper feeding of fowls confined in yards the greater 
portion of the year, and which cannot he allowed their liberty 
by reason of garden, lawn, shrubbery, etc., is a matter which 
has taxed the ingenuity of the poultry keeper for many years. 
The bewildering array of poultry "foods" advertised in all the 
poultry journals throughout the country, which, according to 
the statements of their manufacturers, contain all the necessary 
elements required by the fowls for their best development, best, 
laying, best fattening, best molting, etc., respectively, are no 
doubt good, but, like the numerous infants' foods advertised, 
they do not contain all the elements necessary for the best 
health and development. 

Fowls which have free range over orchards and fields do not 
need any of these foods. They will be able, as a rule, to gather 
all that is necessary for their best development. But fowls 
which are kept confined in yards during the summer months, 
have not this opportunity to properly balance their ration and 
in order to keep them in a thriving and healthy condition, we 
must endeavor to supply them with those things which they 
would obtain if given their liberty. To do this requires con- 
siderable forethought, planning and labor, and, in feeding and 
experimenting with the multitudinous foods above mentioned, 
as we are all apt to do in an endeavor to get the greatest rev- 
enue possible from our fowls, we are apt to overlook one very 
important element in the diet of our flock, viz.: green food. 

••GREEN FOOD IS AS NECESSARY AS GRAIN OR MEAT" 

This green food, or vegetable food, is just as necessary to 
the fowds as the grain or meat ration; in fact, during the late 
winter and early spring when fertile eggs are needed, it is ab- 
solutely essential that they have, regularly, a good supply of 
green food. Steamed clover or alfalfa leaves are a good sub- 
stitute, but these can not take the place of the fresh, succulent 
leaves of the lettuce, cabbage, etc., or the juicy root of the 
mangel-wurzels, and if you want the eggs to run high in fer- 
tility (and of course you do during the season above mentioned) 
you must give your fowls the freshly grown leaves of such vege- 
tables as they will eat. 

For very early spring food we have nothing better than 
lettuce. The seed of this plant is perfectly hardy and can be 
sown in the fall. If it is lightly mulched, the seed will he dor- 
mant during the winter and will start immediately upon the first 
warm days of spring, thereby being available for food several 
weeks sooner than that which is sown in the spring. 

THE MANGEL-WURZEL IS THE STAPLE GREEN FOOD 

Our main staple greenfood, however, is the mangel-wurzeb 
and the excellence of this vegetable for poultry should be more 



100 



THE MATURE FOWLS 



thoroughly recognized than it seems to be at the present time. 
It can be planted as early in the spring as the ground can be 
worked; as soon as the roots begin to grow, it can be thinned 
to about six inches apart and the tops fed to the poultry, alter- 
nating it with the lettuce. After the roots have reached a con- 
siderable size, and the crop oflettuee is, perhaps, exhausted, 
the outer leaves of each root can be broken off, without in any 
manner retarding the growth of the root; in fact, we think it 
increases the size of the mangel-wurzel to break off a certain 
amount of these outer leaves. 

It is thus available for green food well into the summer, 
and when the roots have attained a good size, they also can 
be fed to the flock, and it is a delight to the heart of every true 
lover of poultry to watch with what seemng relish the hens 
will attach a big, juicy, white-meated mangel-wurzel, eating it 
out to a mere shell. In our opinion, it is the one ideal food, 
being absolutely tasteless and thereby imparting no disagree- 
able flavor to the eggs, as a continued diet of cabbage or onions 
will invariably do, and the flock never seems to tire of it. It 
is easily kept in any root house or cellar where there is no danger 
of freezing and is always at hand, in a convenient form for 
their daily ration of green food during the winter and early 
spring months. We always endeavor to have at least a ton of 
mangel-wurzels every fall, and now that we know their value, 
would hardly do without them. 

Another good green food for winter is the cabbage. They 
make an excellent food if not fed too liberally, for the reasons 
above stated, and we feed them in conjunction with the mangel 
wurzel. The hens do not relish them, however, as they do the 
latter. 

We also feed, in the mash, cut alfalfa or clover leaves, as 
these are rich in protein, and therefore good egg-producing 
food, and if you are unable to supply the cabbage or mangel- 
wurzels, the alfalfa and clover is the best substitute you can 
find. But raise the mangel-wurzels if you can. One trial will 
convince you that you can scarcely do without them. 

"WE HAVE FOUND NOTHING BETTER FOR CHICKS THAN 
LETTUCE" 



Not only is this green food necessary to the adult fowls, 
but brooder chicks, which are confined in yards, should also 
have their daily ration of green stuff. We have found nothing 
better for chicks than lettuce, as the leaves are very tender 
and if a bunch is fastened up where they can pick it, they will 
dispose of it in a very short time. They should have it every 
day, particularly if they are confined in runs. This vegetable 
is easily grown and by planting the seed a few weeks apart 
in the spring, a succession of fresh green food can be had all 
summer. It helps the chicks to digest their grain ration, there- 
by keeping them healthy and active, and is just as necessary to 
their growth as the heavier foods. It also adds bulk to the 
ration and consequently saves the necessity of feeding a higher- 
priced food, thereby cutting down the cost and adding to the 
profit. 

Try the different "foods" if you wish to; some of them are 
excellent for the purpose for which they are intended, and the 
most of them are like the old lady's medicine — they will do no 
harm even if they do no good — but in your experiments with 
them, do not forget that all-important necessity to the health 
and growth of your flock — green food. 

Under penalty of incurring the editor's displeasure by mak- 
ing this article too long for convenience, we nevertheless wish 
to speak of one more matter, which, althongh it might be made 
the subject of another article, yet is so closely connected with 
tins question of green food, that it may well be combined under 
the same head. We refer to the poult ryman's garden. 



THE POULTRYMAN CAN HAVE A GOOD GARDEN 

We often hear it said, "You cannot raise chickens and a 
garden, too." This, under ordinary circumstances, is doubtless 
true. But here again, with the exercise of a little forethought 
and planning, and with scarcely any outlay of money, the ob- 
stacle can be overcome and the poultryman can have a good 
garden. It is only necessary to protect the garden for a few 
weeks in the spring when the young vegetables are just com- 
ing up, at which time the chicks do the most damage. And 
where one looks to his poultry for his living, and not to his 
garden, it is much better to fence his garden away from the 
poultry than to fence his poultry away from the garden. In 
other words, protect your garden so the chicks cannot damage 
it, and let them have their liberty. Here is our scheme: 

THE GARDEN SHOULD BE ENCLOSED 

Our vegetable garden is a plot of ground approximately five 
rods square, situated just north of our dwelling, the driveway to 
the barn running between the garden and the house grounds. 
Around this garden plot we set posts, nailing to them at the 
ground a foot wide board. From the board to the top of the 
posts we have stretched such pieces of wire as we have hap- 
pened to have; some of it being four feet, and some being two 
feet wide, and in the latter case, we have stretched one above 
the other, fastening the edges together making it four feet. 
This gives us a five-foot fence, which is plenty high enough for 
all purposes. A wide gate admits horse and wagon when we 
wish to manure the ground for spring planting. 

As soon as our brooder chicks are well feathered, we re- 
lease them from the runs and allow them liberty of the ten 
acres. The foot wide board sitting close to the ground pre- 
vents them from getting under into the garden, and they are, 
by that time, too large to jump through the meshes of the wire, 
and after trying it a few times they give it up. 

By this method we are able, not only to grow all the let- 
tuce, etc., required for them while in the runs, but are also 
able to have an abundance of all kinds of fresh vegetables for 
our own use during the early summer. As soon as everything 
is well up, say by the first of July, we let the chicks have the 
liberty of the garden also. The only vegetable they attack is 
the lettuce and this is by this time so large and thrifty that 
what little they eat does not hurt. They spend most of their 
time hunting bugs and worms and thus prove more of a ben- 
efit than a nuisance. Besides all this, they have their liberty to 
roam where they please and are much more healthy and vigor- 
ous than they would be if constantly confined in yards. You 
can raise chickens and a garden, too, by adopting this plan, 
and both yourself and your chicks will profit thereby. 



IN FAVOR OF TRAP-NESTS 

TRAP-NESTS STRONGLY INDORSED BY ONE WHO 
HAS TESTED THEM— RESULTS MORE THAN PAY 
FOR EXTRA WORK— MANY PET THEORIES EXPLO- 
DED—TRAP-NESTS NOT NECESSARY DURING 
WHOLE SEASON — INTERESTING FACTS DISCLOSED 

F. J. WEHRMEYER 

Get along without trap nests? I would as soon get along 
without any poultry as to attempt it. Scarcely a day passes 
but tliat we sing their praises, and each one is looked after 
and for, as some special blue-ribbon bird would be, or as an 
engineer on a fast train sees to it tliat liis watch is in good 
running order. 



101 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



Arc trap nests of more importance to the bred-to-lay 
strain than to their equally valuable sisters, the show-bred 
birds? Xo; they are an absolute necessity to both. No mat- 
ter which kind of bird it may be, the real interest centered in 
it after all depends upon "eggs," the egg from which it came 
and the eggs it may perchance lay. 

Too much extra work connected with their use? Some 
extra work to be sure, but not too much! The questions often 
arise in my mind, "Does the average buyer appreciate the ef- 
forts put forth by the breeder who is doing all this extra work, 
and do buyers consider the use of trap-nests and all it means 
and make it a factor in their decision when they want to buy?" 
I answer, (as far as I am concerned) I do not care about that, 
the fact is they are indispensable, in short — a necessity, they 
are likewise a source of great pleasure to the true lover of poultry. 
One gets acquainted with lus fowls to such an extent that in- 
stead of considering them as a flock, you learn to know each 
one individually; and this learning is mingled with pleasure 
and regret. Pleasure, when some unpromising bird surprises 
you with doing or developing what you least expected; regret, 
when the "Beauty" of the whole flock proves a flat failure in 
more than one way. We learn that many of the "fattest" 
hens are great layers and also that many of the leanest are 
great layers; that some with the reddest combs lay regularly 
and some with the palest do the same thing, and some of both 
kinds do not lay at all. And so our trap nests keep teaching us 
right along. 

HEAVY WINTER LAYERS 

\\ hen we firal installed trap nests we kept a year's record 
of all eggs beginning with the first egg laid as a pullet, count- 
ing from November first. We then used only the heaviest 

layers as breeders the nexl year. We continued in this prac- 
tice until the facts was toned upon us by the records kept, that 
all the "big layere" were "big" only from the fact that they 
began laying the earliest and continued laying regularly dur- 
ing the "inter months of December, January and February, 
I lio>c that did not lay heavily during the winter months never 
caught up and hence were not numbered among the heavy 
layers at the end of the year. No use imagining that those 
that rest up during winter make up by doing better the rest of 
the year. < (UT experience denies this. 

Convinced of t he fact thai the heavy layers were the winter- 
months-layers and seeing no special reason for knowing exactly 
how many eggs any special individual laid, we could no longer 
see any advantage in keeping a record the whole year, and so 
we adopted the new way, and trap the pullets beginning Nov- 
ember first. .Then those not laying reasonably early are dis- 
carded at once; and again those not laying or equaling the 
average during the winter are also discarded. This leaves you 
nothing but good layers The next fall, after molting, these 
pullets -now yearling hens — go into winter quarters prepara- 
tory to the breeding pens, and again our "best friends" the trap 
nests are set and put into use. 

Experience with trap nests lias taught us that all heavy 
layers in their pullet year do not prove heavy layers as year- 
lings. Many breeders are puzzled to learn that certain indi- 
vidual record breakers do not, as yearlings, produce the eggs 
they naturally expected. This has been brought to my notice 
by more than one. There is no accounting for this. Such 
hens, as we find them, are immediately discarded and not used 
in our breeding pens. 

Our birds being selected and mated and our pens or yards 
being filled with these heavy layers, and the hatching season 
coming on, we trap every bird and number every egg, and as 
soon as possible incubate eggs from each one to test fertility. 
We use a small machine for this work, running it at 103 degrees 



and add eggs any time and test on fourth or seventh days- 
We find all eggs laid by certain hens will not prove fertile, but 
it shows how they run. 

Now then, the oft times repeated saying that the heavy 
layers prove inferior as breeders owing to the heavy drain upon 
their vitality, etc., has proven to be all "imagination," as far 
as our experience has shown. Again this very season, in Feb- 
ruary, we found among our very best layers hens that laid as 
early as November 10th, while still running at large, hens that 
became broody in December and were broken up and once in 
particular that went broody to December and again the week 
before the Cincinnati show, Jan. 16, and was broken up and 
exhibited among other entries both at Cincinnati and Chicago. 
These birds went right on laying, and their eggs run largely 
fertile — nine out of ten — and strong at that. These are facts. 
So much for the theory that the eggs of heavy layers prove 
infertile or are found deficient in strength. 

QUESTION OF FERTILITY 

We have cases where every egg laid by certain hens proves 
infertile. We are told that where the eggs from pens run 
largely fertile and some hens from the same pen lay infertile 
ones, the fault usually lies with the female. This does not 
hold good always. We take such hens and place them alone 
with the same male and leave them together for two days, and 
then place him in the regular pen, and so on, alternating him 
with the two sets of hens. Again we incubate eggs from these 
hens and find them largely fertile. We have had this experience 
again this very season. Our pens, or more properly speaking 
"yards, consist mostly of ten females. This ought to prove that 
while the male is not at all incapacitated, he nevertheless shows 
favoritism. We had two unusually fine birds whose eggs were 
all infertile but by this means they now run strongly fertile. 
One uf these we had not tested and had given a hen eleven of 
her eggs, and imagine our surprise to test on the seventh day 
and find all eleven to be infertile. Instead of having to use 
some other male we followed our way of penning them alone 
witli excellent results. 

SOME THINGS LEARNED 

All this is accomplished by the use of trap nests. They 
also familiarize you with the kind of an egg each one lays, and 
some very unpromising eggs as far as looks are concerned, 
have proven to furnish fine birds. The hens not kept for breed- 
ing are separated according to whether they are laying or not. 
Tins not only gives the layers more room but by different feed- 
ing methods we help the non-layers along surprisingly. They 
are fed sparingly on fattening foods and are kept very busy 
hustling. This stimulates their laying organs and develops 
them. 

While all the foregoing uses of the traps are very essen- 
tial, the most important use consists in our being able to keep 
exact track of the breeding stock, their pedigree, mating, etc., 
also in keeping accurate records of every egg set. When batched 
the chick is marked with a punch and entered in our book and 
later on numbered and the pedigree noted. 

The eggs, too, frequently indicate the condition in which 
the hen is. Trapping will point out the one you want. While 
the White Wyandottes (the breed we keep) lay an irregular 
egg at best, you soon become familiar with each one's eggs so 
that you detect the slightest change. 

In conclusion I wish to state that we do not believe in a 
200-egg strain any more than that every prize winner will beget 
a prize winner, but we do know that by the use of trap nests 
you can breed and pick the best layers from your strain of 
layers. By continuing this practice of breeding from fjiese 



102 



THE MATURE FOWLS 



picked layers, their progeny will certainly develop larger laying 
tendencies. This surely will bring "Better Poultry and More 
of it." 



HOW TO GET HATCHABLE EGGS 

WINTER AND EARLY SPRING EGGS FOR HATCH- 
ING—THE IMPORTANCE OF HEALTHY BREEDING 
STOCK— HOUSING SUGGESTIONS— GREEN FOOD AN 
ESSENTIAL — GOOD MOIST AND DRY RATIONS 

P. T. WOODS, M. D. 

Every season much disappointment is caused by a low 
percentage of fertility in the winter and early spring eggs or 
the failure of such eggs to give satisfactory batches. A part of 
the trouble is attributed, and justly so, to the severe cold weather, 
which affects the condition of the breeding stock. It is not to 
be expected that birds which have exhausted their vitality in 
resisting a long spell of extreme cold weather will be in suitable 
condition to supply eggs that will hatch well. But some breeders 
get eggs that give them veiy satisfactory results. Every year 
there are breeders who produce hatchable eggs that show a 
good percentage of fertility for the season in which they are 
laid. If other breeders will adopt the same practical and 
reasonable methods that are in vogue with these successful men, 
they too will get good hatchable winter eggs. 

It' is not practical and it is not reasonable to expect the . 
same percentage of fertile eggs early in the season that can 
easily be obtained later, when the weather has become warmer 
and more settled. The generative organs are not as active and 
in the male not as fully developed in the winter as they are dur- 
ing the spring months, — the natural breeding season. This 
latter is a well-known physiological fact and can be readily 
demonstrated by post-mortem examinations of male birds at 
different seasons of the year. In many cases such conditions 
may account for low fertility where apparently the birds are 
receiving the best of care; but if ordinary precautions are used 
in selecting the male bird it need not prove a very serious ob- 
stacle. 

THE BREEDING STOCK 



While the selection of the male is a matter of great im- 
portance, the selection of the females is equally important. 
The hens must be chosen primarily for physical health and 
soundness; unless they are strong, healthy and vigorous the re- 
sults will not be satisfactory. All other matters are of second- 
ary importance to health. It should be borne in mind that 
the female, to a large extent, governs the size and shape of the 
progeny, the male apparently having very little influence in 
this regard. For this reason, while large sized females may be 
used, it is always better to have a medium sized male. A small, 
active male is to be preferred to a large, clumsy, heavy one. 
Very large male birds seldom give good results at the head of a 
breeding pen. ':•:,.", 

Never use any bird for breeding purposes until it has its 
adult plumage. Breeding birds of either sex should be well 
grown, fully matured, of good size and vigorous. Yearlings 
may be mated with yearlings and very satisfactory results 
obtained, but it is seldom advisable to mate a cockerel with 
pullets. For pullets use either a yearling or two-year-old male. 
With yearling or two-year-old hens it is best to use a good, 
active, vigorous cockerel. 

Never attempt breeding from a bird that has had a serious 




HOUSE AND SHELTER FOR CHICKS 



It should always be remembered that from a breeder's 
standpoint the male bird is, to all practical intents and pur- 
poses, one-half of the pen which he heads, and for this reason 
it is very necessary to observe great care in the selection of the 
male; he should be sound, vigorous, active and in the very best 
physicial condition. Unless he is active and attentive to his 
flock he will be of very little use as a breeder. His actions 
should be carefully watched and the eggs from his pen tested 
frequently to ascertain the percentage of fertility. If the per- 
centage of fertility is not satisfactory it will be well to try 
another bird. Oftentimes, early in the season, results are 
more satisfactory if the male is only allowed to run with the 
pen for a week at a time and is then cooped by himself, in a 
small, comfortable coop like an exhibition coop, in some build- 
ing where he cannot hear or see the hens. Many breeders adopt 
this method and practice what is known as "alternating males." 
Male No. 1 being allowed to run with the flock for a week, while 
male No. 2 is confined in a small coop; then male No. 1 is re- 
moved from the flock and confined while male No. 2 takes his 
place, and so on throughout the breeding season. Whether this 
practice of alternating males is adopted or not, it is always 
advisable to have a few reserve male birds for use in case those 
heading the pens do not prove satisfactory. 



illness during the year even though it lias apparently recovered. 
Remember always that there is a deal of truth in the saying 
that "like produces like," and tliat if you wish to have the 
greatest possible number of hatchable eggs that will produce 
strong, sturdy chicks, it is absolutely essential that the breed- 
ing stock be in the best possible condition. 

In a great majority of cases where cliicks die in the shell, 
at various stages of incubation or at pipping time, and in many 
cases where they die without apparent cause during the first 
ten days after hatching, the trouble is directly traceable to the 
condition of the breeding stock. Unsound, debilitated, im- 
properly fed breeders cannot and will not produce eggs con- 
taining strong germs or properly proportioned yolk-food. Un- 
less the germs are strong and unless the yolk-food is well balanced, 
good cliicks cannot be obtained. 

SUGGESTIONS AS TO HOUSING 

Breeding birds should be comfortably.housed, but this di - 
not mean that t hey need to be pampered or to have specially 
constructed poultry houses or buildings supplied with artificial 
heat. The men who are getting the best results in producing 
eggs that hatch well in the winter season, house their birds in 



103 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



what are commonly spoken of as cold houses. These are tight, 
well-made buildings, either provided with scratching sheds 
where the fowls can have a sheltered place to exercise and are 
at the same time supplied with an abundance of fresh air, or 
closed houses having windows or doors in the front which are 
opened wide daily to admit a large volume of fresh air and prac- 
tically convert the house into an open shed. In such buildings 
the birds keep in better health and are less liable to colds than 
when confined in warm houses and houses supplied with arti- 
ficial heat. 

It is a well-known fact among practical poultrymen that a 
fowl will catch cold quicker from a small current of cold air in 
a warm poultry house than it will from similar exposure in a 
cold house; while colds among poultry housed in cold houses, 
that are run wide open for a large portion of the day every day 
throughout the winter, are almost unknown. 

In the matter of housing the safest plan is to provide com- 
fortable, tight buildings, so arranged that they can be thor- 
oughly aired and sunned daily while the birds are exercising. 
Keep these buildings practically wide open throughout the day 
except on very stormy days. In most localities there will be 
very few days in winter when the house cannot be kept open 
for a few hours during some portion of the day. Such houses 
should always be closed at least an hour or two before dark 
and remain tightly closed all night. Keep the houses clean 
and in a sanitary condition. Filth and success are sworn 
enemies and are never found on the same poultry plant. Care 
should be taken not to overcrowd the poultry buildings and 
there should not be more fowls in the pen that can find com- 
fort able roosting accommodation. As a rule it is a good plan 
to allow about ten square feet of floor space per breeding bird 
and not to run more than 15 or 20 birds in a pen, according to 
the variety. At this point it may be well to state that there 
is often a great difference in breeding males as to the number 
of hens they can properly care for; some males cannot properly 
serve more than eight or ten females, while others will easily 
take care of 20 or more. In this matter the breeder will have 
to exercise his own best judgment and he should be careful not 
to overtax the ability of his breeding males, preferably giving 
them fewer, rather than more, females than they can easily 
take care of. 

Bear in mind that exercise is of vital importance in keeping 
the breeding birds in good condition and for this reason they 
should receive a large proportion of their dry grain food fed in 
deep fitter. It is the active, busy, hustling hen who is always 
scratching in fitter and may be found at almost any time buried 
tuil deep, with straw flying in all directions, that produces the 
eggs that hatch best. Any good litter material may be used, 
either straw, chaff, corn-stover or planer shavings, and this 
should cover the floor of the breeding pens from six to ten 
inches deep. Leaves may be used, but they do not make as 
satisfactory litter material as either straw or shavings. 

After the snow comes breeding stock should always be kept 
confined to poultry houses until the weather becomes settled 
in the spring. Dry earth floors, well littered, are very satis- 
factory, but if there is any tendency of the earth floor to be 
damp or wet, a wooden floor is more desirable. Do not allow 
breeding birds to run out on the snow and ice or to eat frozen 
grass or weeds. 

FOODS AND FEEDING 

Given sound, healthy breeding stock, well housed, the food 
and the manner of feeding it plays a most important part in 
the getting of fertile liat enable eggs. It is not necessary for 
the breeder to trouble himself with regard to the chemical 
composition of the grains or the nutritive ratio of the food fed 
so long as he supphes his birds with an abundance of good, 
wholesome food in variety. It is much better to allow the 



birds a reasonable opportunity to balance their own rather than 
for a breeder to attempt to prepare a scientifically balanced 
food, the formula for which is based largely on guesswork, 
haphazard reading and theory. The average healthy fowl 
instinctively knows what it wants ana what its system craves 
and can be trusted to balance its own food ration if given an 
opportunity. This should not be construed to mean that the 
poultryman should entirely ignore the chemical content of the 
foods he supplies his flock. The government chemists supply 
us with ample and authoritative information as to the con- 
stituents of all the foods available for poultry feeding. 

We know that the grains like wheat, barley, corn and oats 
are well proportioned in regard to protein, carbohydrates, fats 
and mineral matter. We also know that clover and alfalfa are 
rich in protein and mineral matters, posess health-giving pro- 
perties and supply the necessary bulky food without which 
the digestive organs of the fowl will not work properly. We 
also know that in beef scraps and other meat food we have a 
product rich in animal protein, differing in some not thoroughly 
understood way from vegetable protein, and very essential to 
the life and health of the fowl. If we know this we have little 
need to worry ourselves concerning the chemistry of foods, 
provided we give the birds an opportunity to select what they 
need as they require it. 

Wheat, barley and corn are named because they are the 
most desirable and most easily obtainable grains, as well as 
the most economical. Oats, if of good quality, may be sub- 
stituted where barley cannot be obtained. Barley and corn 
can be made to answer if wheat is scarce and high. Heavy 
wheat bran is desirable for use in dry or moist mashes. The 
coarse light bran contains more fibre and is of less value. Clover 
or alfalfa is necessary to afford roughage and supply a substi- 
tute for the anti-scorbutic and medicinal properties of fresh 
plant life. Breeders who use clover or alfalfa freely and en- 
courage their fowls to eat it, get the best results in fertile eggs. 

It is not possible to get strong, well fertilized, hatchable 
eggs where birds are forced for egg production by feeding con- 
centrated mash foods. Mash food too freely or too often will 
result in large watery eggs that will not hatch well. The free 
use of moist mashes also tends to create more or less disturbance 
of the digestive organs, resulting in looseness of the bowels or 
some other evidence of lack of perfect condition. This does not 
mean that mashes should not be fed to breeding birds, but that 
rich mash food should never be pushed with a view to getting 
the greatest possible egg production if the eggs are intended for 
hatching purposes. 

Highly concentrated mashes, containing quantities of beef 
scrap or other meat food, should not be fed to breeding stock. 
Any considerable amount of scrap or other meat food fed in 
the grain mixture has a tendency to create digestive disturb- 
ances and it is the belief of the writer that nearly all of the 
trouble which lias been experienced by those who feed mash 
foods is due to the use of meat and animal fats in the ground 
grain, moist mash mixtures. 

A MOIST MASH RATION FOR BREEDING STOCK 

Where it is desired to feed breeding stock according to the 
moist mash method, the following will be found a desirable 
plan for feeding: Scald a quantity of cut or mealed clover or 
alfalfa, sufficient to form one-fourth to one-half of the bulk of 
the mash for your flock, into this stir a mixture of equal parts 
by measure of heavy bran and coarse corn meal or equal parts 
by measure of corn and oat chop and heavy bran. Mix the 
whole into a crumbly mash as dry as possible and feed either 
morning, noon or night, according to the convenience of the 
breeder. When fed at night this mash should be followed by 
a feed of mixed hard grain. Adopt some regular plan of feed- 
ing and stick to it. If you start with a morning mash, make it 



104 



THE MATURE FOWLS 



always a morning mash. Whatever time you select for feeding 
mash be sure to have it come at the same feeding time each day. 
No matter what else you may neglect do not fail to see that 
your birds have regular meals or, if you dry feed, that they 
are always supplied. Careless, or irregular feeding methods 
are sure to upset the condition of the stock. 

If the birds do not take kindly to the clover in the mash, 
use only a very small quantity at first and gradually work it 
up as the fowls become accustomed to it. The other feeding 
should be a mixture of hard dry grains fed in the litter. 

A good scratching grain mixture can be made of 30 pounds 
each of wheat and barley to 40 pounds of freshly cracked or 
whole corn. Keep grit, oyster shell and dry, pure beef scrap 
constantly before the birds in a grit box or food hopper. In 
addition to this, whenever obtainable, hang cabbages in the 
pen for the birds to work at, or split beets or mangel-wurzels 
in halves and nail them, cut surface outward, to the studding 
of the poultry house, at a convenient height for the birds to 
pick at. 

A GOOD DRY FOOD RATION FOR BREEDING STOCK 

Use dry grain scratching food in the litter consisting of the 
same dry grain mixture mentioned above, or made of 30 pounds 
coarse cracked or whole corn; 30 pounds wheat; 30 pounds 
barley; 7 pounds kaffir corn, and 3 pounds sunflower seed. 
This should be scattered morning and night in deep litter, 
always keeping a sufficient amount of grain in the litter so that 
the birds can find a kernel by scratching for it. Keep dry, pure 
beef scrap constantly before the birds in one compartment of 
the food hopper; keep the other compartment of the food hopper 
filled with a dry grain mash mixture made as follows: 40 
pounds of corn; 20 pounds barley, and 20 pounds of wheat 
ground together to a medium coarse meal, add to this 20 pounds 
of heavy bran and mix thoroughly, diy. This should be fed 
dry from the food hopper, never moistened, and should be al- 
ways kept before the birds. 

Scalded or steamed cut clover and alfalfa should be fed 
three or four times a week. The water used in scalding the 
clover should be seasoned with a little salt. If the birds will 
not eat the clover plain, add a very little cornmeal to the clover. 
Stop using the meal as soon as the birds eat the clover readily. 
Whole cabbages, when obtainable, should be hung up in the 
pens for the birds to pick at. Feed mangel wurzels or beets 
split in halves and nailed to the studding, cut surface out. Keep 
grit, shell and pure water constantly before the birds. 

Where only a few fowls are kept table scraps may be fed 
to advantage if thoroughly cooked. Cook them until they 
easily mash up or fall apart, boil down the scraps until there 
is as little liquor as possible, then add a mixture of equal parts 
by measure, clover or alfalfa, heavy bran or corn meal in suffi- 
cient quantity to make a crumbly mash. Feed only as much 
of this as the birds will eat up clean and quickly and give them 
a good scratching grain mixture in litter for other feedings. 
Where moist mashes are fed do not give mash oftener than five 
days a week. 

"DRYING AND FLUFFING" PEN 

FOR FITTING STANDARD-BREDS FOR SHOW, WHICH 
WAS USED WITH GREAT SATISFACTION POR MANY 
YEARS AND WAS A VALUABLE ADJUNCT TO 
OUR PLANT— HOW TO WASH AND DRY AND IM- 
PROVE THE APPEARANCE OF EXHIBITION FOWLS 

F. C. HARE 

High-class fowls in perfect show condition are necessary 
for capturing the blue at any of the American poultry shows. 



The standard-bred business has grown to such a large and im- 
portant industry that the competition in the more popular 
classes is certain to be extremely keen, and interesting in all 
the others. 

The older members of the poultry fraternity have learned so 
many secrets and tricks of fitting fowls for the show, and they 
have so many ways of "doctoring-up" what an amateur would 
believe to be an irreparable defect that the latter finds it diffi- 
cult to win even a Highly Commended at a show of moderate 
size. Suitable advice for the amateur breeder is for him to 
keep everlastingly showing and constantly seeking information 
and if his stock is of high quality and simply unplaced because 
it is improperly fitted or conditioned, success will come to him 
in one or more years. 

Fitting fowls for the shows is a constant theme in the 
poultry press. In fact during the past year several instructive 
and practical articles have appeared in the R. P. J. dealing 

with this important 
and necessary 
branch of the poul- 
try business. This 
type of "fitting" 
article usually pre- 
sents detailed di- 
rections for the suc- 
cessful washing of 
fowls, but unfor- 
tunately does not 
explain clearly how 
the fowls should be 
treated after they 
are washed, or from 
the time they leave 
the rinsing tub un- 
til their plumage 
has returned to its 
original dryness 
and beauty. 
It seems advis- 
able at this time to 
present a complete 
system for fitting 
standard-breds for 
the show rather 
than to indicate 
simply our process 
of drying and fluff- 
ing the fowls. 




THE BARREL DRYER 

By holding the wet fowl over the mouth of 
the barrel dryer, slowly drying portions of the 
plumage— such as under the wings, back, etc.— 
can be specially heated and made to dry uni- 
formly with the remainder. 



THE NECESSARY APPLIANCES 

Thorough washing and the proper subsequent treatment will 
improve the appearance of almost every fowl whether its color 
is white, black or an intermediate shade or shades. From four 
days to three weeks before the show (depending on whether 
you will wash one, two or three times) the fowls you contem- 
plate exhibiting, together with some three to ten more, should 
be brought to a warm room where the washing can take place. 
A wash-boiler of boiling water (preferably rain water); two 
tubs for colored birds and three for white; a dipper; ivory soap; 
hand brush; sponge; several coal-oil stoves and numerous cheap 
towels or squares of cotton should be ready. 

It is imperative that the soap used is a good toilet or bath 
article and that the water is soft or rain, because we once had 
an unfortunate experience with a certain hard water and soft 
soap, in which the lime of the water formed a sticky combination 
with the soap; became attached to the Fowls and required a 



105 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



great amount of work to remove. The fowls' chances, more- 
over, were ruined for .the show. 

The tub in which the fowls are washed is two-thirds filled 
with water of a temperature equal to that in which a person 
would enjoy a hot bath. The tub for rinsing is filled with cold 
water (with the chill removed) and where the third tub is used 
the temperature of the water in that tub is the same as in the 
second. 

The coal oil stoves in the drying or fluffing pen should be 
burning in order that the temperature of the pen will be suf- 
ficiently warm to insert the fowls as soon as they are washed. 
The pen will be described later. 

WASHING THE FOWLS 

Before the fowls are placed in the washing tub, their feet 
and legs should be thoroughly cleaned with a hand brush, soap 




THE DRYING AND FLUFFING PEN 
After the fowls are washed they are placed on the roost of the drying and fluffing 
pen; the front curtain is lowered and the warm air rapidly dries their plumage. During 
the drying, heavily-feathered varieties can have their plumage "fluffed" and greatly im- 
proved in appearance. 



and hot water; dirt on the head or face should be removed with 
a damp cloth. The fowl is grasped with both hands alid stood 
in the washing tub. A lather is made with the soap and sponge 
and this lather is worked into the 'plumage 'With the hands. 

10(5 



The back is first soaked; then the saddle or cushion and under 
plumage. Care is exercised not to break any feathers by rub- 
bing them backwards — they will stand almost any amount of 
"with-the-web" and diagonal rubbing. 

While the fowl is in the tub the wings are extended and 
carefully washed with the sponge, the feathers being supported 
with the palm of the left hand; the tail feathers are washed in 
a similar manner. 

From the washing tub the fowl is placed in the moderately 
cold rinsing water. Here the dipper and sponge are used to 
thoroughly remove the soap from the plumage. With white 
fowls a third tub of slightly blued water is necessary; the water, 
however, must not be too blue or it will streak the plumage. 

When the fowl is taken from the rinsing tub it is placed 
on a table and the superfluous water is removed with the sponge. 
Afterwards the plumage is carefully "patted" with a towel; 
then the fowl is ready for the drying and fluffing pen. 



THE PEN WAS A VALUABLE ADJUNCT TO 
OUR PLANT 



This pen was designed for use in a cellar warmed 
by^a furnace and where there was no range or open 
fire place before which the fowls could be dried. It 
was used with great satisfaction for many years and 
was a valuable adjunct to our plant. The heat of 
several coal oil stoves (one stove for each foot in 
length of the pen) was utilized, and by means of 
these stoves the birds could be dried-off and fluffed 
in a few hours. They afterwards presented a more 
attractive appearance than if they had been ten or 
twelve hours drying in the orthodox manner of "sit- 
ting before a fire." A pen six feet long will accommo- 
date from eight to ten fowls, even if several are 
matured males — there will be no fighting on the roost- 
By boring a number of one and one-half inch 
holes near the bottom of a barrel and placing a coal- 
oil stove in it with a cone-shaped galvanized-iron top, 
slowly drying portions of the plumage, such as the 
juncture of hackle and back feathers underneath the 
wings, etc., can be hurried and a uniform drying 
produced. 

THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE DRYING AND 
FLUFFING PEN 



The drying and fluffing pen is of the following 
simple construction, and can be easily erected: Length 
4 to 6 feet; height 5 feet; width 2 feet. There is a 3 
by 2-inch roost (the fowls stand on the 3-inch face) 
2 inches above the lower compartment. The back 
and ends and the lower half of the front are built of 
lumber; the four corner pieces are 2 by 4 inches in 
dimension. 

The tops of the lower and upper compartments are 
covered with one-inch wire netting to prevent the 
fowls falling to the ground. A piece of burlap can 
be lowered to inclose the front of the open compart- 
ment and another piece is used to cover the wire top. 
The w T ashed fowl is placed on the roost of the pen 
and the front and top curtains are drawn to increase the tem- 
perature. If the temperature of the pen seems too liigh, a corner 
of the front curtain is pinned back; if more ventilation is re- 
quired the top curtain is partially removed. 



THE MATURE FOWLS 



DRYING AND FLUFFING THE FOWLS 

The washing of the other fowls can proceed until all are 
washed, and during that time it is advisable to have an assis- 
tant separate the plumage of each wet fowl (without removing 
it from the roost) and in this manner to make it possible for 
the warm air to dry out the fluffy feathering next the skin. 
The fowls that were washed first will be partially dried before 
the washing is completed. 

Afterwards both operators stand in front of the pen and by 
continuing to open the fowls' plumage, and by utilizing the 
barrel dryer the feathers are dried rapidly. 



There is one suggestion that should be observed; that is, 
that the fowls of the loose feathered varieties should have their 
soft feathers turned back constantly until they are perfectly 
dry — the result being apparently one-third more size and 
fluffiness; the fowls of the tight-feathered varieties must not have 
the feathers opened more than is necessary to dry the interior. 

While in most cases one thorough washing and drying is 
sufficient, yet with certain fowls it is often advisable to wash 
the second and third times — in fact, white fowls will improye 
in appearance as much in the second and third washings as they 
did in the first. The second and third washes and drying are, 
of course, conducted similarly to the first. 




107 



CHAPTER SEVEN 



INCUBATION AND BROODING 

NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL METHODS 



LEADING SUCCESSFUL BREEDERS STATE THEIR EXPERIENCE IN HATCHING AND REAR- 
ING CHICKS— MAJORITY FAVOR ARTIFICIAL METHODS FOR GREATER PART OF FLOCK— 
A SMALL PER CENT HATCHED BY HENS— HOW TO HATCH, B"ROOD AND FEED CHICKENS 




UCCESSFUL hatching and rearing chickens is one 
of the branches of poultry work that is of equal 
importance with proper care and management of 
the breeding stock. The two go liand in liand. 
One must have good, sound, healthy breeding stock 
well cared for in order to get strong, sturdy chicks. 
No matter how liardy a chick may be when hatched 
or how good the condition of the parent stock, 
unless it is properly cared for and well fed the results may be 
discouraging. That is why these intimately related branches 
of poultry work, condition, care and management of breeding 



with poor tools. Some hens are indifferent sitters and poor 
mothers. 

Some incubators and brooders may be inferior when results 
are considered. To be on the safe side get and use only the 
best tliat can be obtained. Choose mature hens for sitters, that 
have a mild disposition and are quiet and motherly. So far as 
possible use yearling or two-year old birds that you have tested 
and which proved good mothers in their pullet year. For ma- 
chine work get incubators and brooders that you know by 
reputation, and that have established a good record for doing 
the work required of them and doing it well. 




A PAIR OF STANDARD BRED WHITE PLYMOUTH ROCKS 



stock and the hatching and rearing of chicks, are considered 
equally important. 

It is essential that the work of incubation be well and 
properly done, although with sound stock in good condition 
poor hatches are of rare occurence. No matter whether you 
hatch by natural or artificial means you cannot afford to work 



The majority of well-known poultrymen are today using 
artificial means of hatching and rearing chicks, at least for the 
greater proportion of the chickens they raise each season. Many 
of these men, practical poultrymen and fanciers of wide ex- 
perience, state that they cannot see any difference between 
the quality and size of stock produced by artificial means and 



10S 



INCUBATION AND BROODING 



that mothered by the old hen, while they are able to get chicks 
in larger numbers and at whatever season of the year they want 
them by machine methods without the difficulties and trials 
attendant upon the so-called natural methods. 

In this chapter we present articles telling about incubator 
cellar and brooder house, but still more important we tell how 
to obtain best results in hatching and brooding chicks by both 
natural and artificial means. The beginner and veteran will 
each find much that is both interesting and instructive in the 
following pages and a careful study of them should enable the 
reader to hatch and grow chicks successfully. 

Believing that a symposium by some of the leading suc- 
cessful breeders would prove of great value for study and com- 
parison, we prepared the following questions to be answered by 
them: 

Q. 29. If you use incubators, what proportion of all the 
chicks you hatch each season do you hatch artificially and about 
what per cent of the whole by the natural method? 

Q. 30. If you use brooders, how many newly-hatched 
chicks do you place in each brooder? 

Q. 31. What do you feed little chicks? 

Q. 32. How do you feed chicks, also how often? 

The replies which were received in time for publication are 
given herewith, each beneath the name of the breeder answering 
our questions. Each question is given a number and each 
answer is numbered to correspond with the question asked. 

W. L. DAVIS, WILLOW BROOK FARM, 
Berlin, Conn. 

BREEDER OF S. C. BUFF, BLACK AND WHITE ORPINGTONS 

A. 29. I hatch about three chickens in the incubator to 
one by hen. Incubators are so improved that you can hatch 
fully as successfully by incubator and rear by the improved 
methods of brooding, as you can by the hen. I consider a great 
percentage of loss of chckens is saved by getting rid of lice and 
vermin that generally come by having chickens hatched with 
hens. 

A. 30. Our brooder house is 50 feet long, and divided 
into sections of 5 feet each. We generally put in about 50 
chickens to each brooder, and meet with success that way. 

A. 31. Little chickens that are just hatched are fed as 
soon as practical, and are fed mostly on stale bread and beef 
scrap. We continue this feeding right up to the day they are 
put into the breeding yards. 

A. 32. Our young stock we feed three or four times a 
day. Their rations consist chiefly of oats, wheat and barley, 
also one feed each day of stale bread soaked in water, but the 
water is pressed out of same and the bread food given to the 
young stock in a moist condition. 

W. R. GRAVES, Springfield, Mass. 

WHITE WYANDOTTE SPECIALIST 

A. 29. Seventy-five per cent with incubators. 

A. 30. Not over 50 chicks for best results. 

A. 31. Prepared chick food until large enough to eat 
cracked grains, then a mixture of different grain in right pro- 
portion to make a good growing food. 

.4. 32. Five or six times a day on that, gradually reduc- 
ing to three times when weaned from brooder or mother. 

WILBER BROS., Petros, Tennessee 

S. C. WHITE LEGHORN SPECIALISTS 

A. 29. We certainly use incubators, a standard make, 
which hatches artificially with great satisfaction our hundreds 



of fine birds each year. The hen is seldom ready to sit or at 
her post when wanted. 

A. 30. We use only brooders and 40 to 50 chicks will do 
fine in them, and when properly run, one seldom loses a chick. 

A. 31. Our young chicks are fed from shell to age of ten 
weeks on a prepared chick food after which they are fed three 
times daily on a variety of mixed grain and cracked corn scattered 
broadcast in fitter, sparingly except at night when they are fed 
a full feed. 

A. 32. When chicks are first hatched they receive noth- 
ing for 48 hours, when they are moved to brooders and a fight 
feed of chick food is scattered in litter four times daily for first 
two weeks, and gradually cut as age advances to three feeds 
daily. 



J. H. DOANE, Gouverneur, N. Y. 

BREEDER OF S. C. BLACK MINORCAS AND WHITE WYANDOTTES 

A. 29. Until the present (1906) season hatched about 
75 per cent of all chicks hatched with incubators. Being well 
convinced that incubator clucks are fully equal to those hatched 
in the natural way, with the added advantage of getting rid of 
all vermin, we used incubators exclusively with quite atis- 
factory results. 

A. 30. Not to exceed 50, and 25 makes a nice bunch in 
one family. 

A. 31. Have found nothing yet to equal the prepared 
chick food offered for sale by different companies. 

A. 32. A chick that is old enough to eat is not too young 
to be fed in litter. 



I. W. PARKS, Altoona, Pa. 

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCK SPECIALIST 

A. 29. Ninety-five per cent with incubators. 

A. 30. This of course all depends on the brooder and the 
place it is located. I generally put about half as many chicks 
in a brooder as it is rated at. Not over 50 in one flock. 

A. 31. We generally start our chicks on bread crumbs 
browned in the oven and moistened with boiled milk. We give 
them a supply of fine grit before we take them from the machines, 
in other words, we take our trays out and scatter grit on the 
nursery floor, and leave them in there for a day. After they 
are a few days old we start them on a chick food and give them 
a little green stuff right along. After they are ten days or so 
old we begin to feed a little fine beef scrap along with the other 
feeds. 

A. 32. We feed whatever foods we can in fine cut straw 
for the chicks so as to induce them to take exercise. We of 
course give them their first few feeds on small boards or on 
heavy paper, and give them what they will eat up clean. We 
feed about five times a day for the first few days, and then down 
to four times, and after they are about three or four weeks old 
and able to work pretty lively we feed only three times. 



BRADLEY BROS., Lee, Mass. 

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCK SPECIALISTS 

.4. 31. Meal, ground wheat and barley, besi ground 
scraps mash. Later, cracked com. cracked wheat, broken rice 
and -mall buckwheat. Mash is partially cooked over fire and 
when cool more meal is added to make it dry and crumbly. 
Meal, ten parts: scraps, one-half part: ground stuff, one-half 
part. Increase all but meal as birds grow. 

.1. 32. Four times a dav. See-'ll. 



109 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



C. H. WELLES, Stratford, Conn. 

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCK SPECIALIST 

A. 29. I use incubators for all my early chicks and some 
of the later ones. The incubator is indispensible to the fancier, 
market poultryman, or the small breeder. 

.1. 30. About 50. Don't crowd the chicks. 

A. 31. A commercial chick food the first three or four 
weeks. After that, foods that make bone and muscle; whole 
wheat, hulled oats and meat scraps principally. 

A. 32. I keep it by them all the time in dry food hoppers. 



FRANK McGRANN, Lancaster, Pa. 

BREEDER OF SINGLE COMB BLACK MINORCAS.BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS. 

WHITE WYANDOTTES, AND SINGLE-COMB 

WHITE LEGHORNS 

A, 29. About 75 per cent artificially. 

A . 30. Not more than 50 chicks. 

A. 31. For the first two days I feed a mixture of toasted 
bread and cooked infertile eggs, then I add chick food until they 
are ten days old, when I cut out the bread and eggs entirely. 
Then I begin feeding meat scrap in small quantities and also 
greens of some kind, charcoal and grit before them all the time. 
When the chicks are about six weeks old, I commence feeding 
cracked corn, and continue this until they have matured. 

A. 32. Scatter the feed in cut clover and feed four times 
a day until the chicks are six weeks old, and then only three 
times a da v. 



.1 . 30. About 40 and not more than 60. 

A. 31. Feed some good chick food in hoppers. 

A. 32. Cracked grains such as com, wheat, millet, kaffir 
corn, beef scraps, hopper fed, with plenty of water, and milk 
when it can be had. Feed all sweet or all sour milk; do not 
mix the two, thus avoiding sickness. 



EDW. KNAPP, OF KNAPP BROS., Fabius, N. Y. 

S. C. WHITE LEGHORN SPECIALIST 

A. 29. We use incubators for hatching all our stock. 

.4. 30. We place about 75 chicks in each brooder. 

A. 31. Dry bread crumbs for first two days, then we 
believe in johnnycakes properly made to crumble nicely with 
meat scraps added interspersed with chick food best quality 
fine granulated grains. 

.4. 32. We feed in long shallow troughs what they will 
pick up quickly every two hours at first, gradually corning to 
three feeds a day. 



H. J. BLANCHARD, Groton, N. Y. 



S. C. WHITE LEGHORN SPECIALIST 



A. 29. 

brooders. 
A. 30. 
A. 31. 

chick food. 



All chicks hatched by incubators and raised in 

Forty to 60, according to the season and weather. 

First feed grit and bread crumbs or commercial 

Water, not very cold. Chick food is continued for 



W. I). HOLTERMAN, Ft. Wayne, Ind. 
barred Plymouth rock specialist 

A. 31. I feed little chicks a dry grain mixture 
such as is put on the market by different manufacturers. 
I start them on tins and feed them nothing else for the 
first three weeks. Then I begin with a little hulled oats 
and wheat. 

A. 32. I feed them absolutely dry foods, nothing 
wel or even moist. Every two hours they are looked 
after and fed a little. They do not receive any water the 
Brat two days. In this way I succeed in getting them 
started with very little trouble or loss. 



H. E. BENEDICT, Horseheads, N. Y. 

BUFF PLYMOUTH ROCK SPECIALIST 

A. 29. Seventy-five to 90 per cent by incubator, 
and from 10 to 25 per cent by hens. 

A. 30. From 25 to 50, according to the size of the 
brooder. 

A. 31. Dry chick food until large enough to take whole 
wheat, cracked corn and such grains. Give them chick grit the 
first thing. They should have sunshine, fresh air and exercise. 

.4. 32. Feed them little at a time and often, every two 
hours at first and every three hours until well started. 



A. B. TODD, Vermillion, Ohio 

S. C. WHITE LEGHORN SPECIALIST 

A. 29. All of my liatching is artificially done and hatch 
about 80 per cent of all fertile eggs. 




HEALTHY, VIGOROUS, YOUNG STOCK ON FREE RANGE 

about five or six weeks alternated with johnny cake, after which 
this feed is gradually discontinued and a dry mixture of com 
meal, wheat bran and alfalfa meal takes its place. Whole wheat 
and cracked corn gradually take the place of the chick food and 
the dry mash is continued righ, along with the addition of some 
high grade beef scraps. When the chicks are quite small and 
not able to run out and pick grass we feed them short cut clover 
or lawn clippings which they enjoy. Also keep grit and charcoal 
before them. 

A. 32. First few feeds given on clean sand in brooder, 
then scattered in cut straw, cut clover or bran chaff until chicks 
get outdoors when the chick food is scattered in short grass 
when drv. The dry mash is first fed on small boards with a lath 



110 



INCUBATION AND BROODING 



around the margin and later in shallow troughs. First two or 
three weeks we feed five times daily, then four and lastly three 
times. 

A. & E. TARBOX, Yorkville, 111. 

SILVER LACED WYANDOTTE SPECIALISTS 



Seventy-five per cent by the incubator, 25 per 

Forty to 50 chicks. 

A patent chick meal, mixed grain chick feed. 

Feed five times a day. Feed the grain in litter 



A. 29. 
cent by hens. 

A. 30. 

A. 31. 

A. 32. 
so as to keep them busy; the meal on boards or in troughs. 



F. W. RICHARDSON, Hicksville, Ohio 

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS EXCLUSIVELY 

A. 29. Hatch about 50 per cent artificially and about 
75 per cent hatch; about 65 to 70 per cent natural method. 
A. 30. Thirty-five to 40. 



A. 31. Chicks are fed on chick food for the first five or 
six weeks; if this is not to be had, oatmeal is fed sparingly, to- 
gether with cracked wheat, cracked corn and millet seed, with 
plenty of sharp grit always before them. 

A. C. HAWKINS, Lancaster, Mass. 

BREEDER OF WHITE. BUFF AND BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS, 
SILVER, BUFF AND WHITE WYANDOTTES 



A. 

method. 
A. 
A. 



29. I hatch nearly all my chicks by the natural 



30. Fifty. 

31. Chick food and a mash of three-fourths corn meal, 
one-eighth middlings and one-eighth ground oats cooked in milk. 

A. 32. I feed chicks at 5 a. m. and every three hours 
until dark, a feed of chick food and a feed of mash alternately. 

J. C. FISHEL & SON, Hope, Ind. 

WHITE WYANDOTTE SPECIALISTS 

A. 29. Nearly all by incubators, only a few late chicks 
by hens in order to let our breeding hens have a rest. 




AN ARTISTIC GROUP OF WHITE LEGHORNS 



A. 31. Feed on pinhead oatmeal, toasted or oven dried 
bread, and cracker crumbs. Fine grit and water to drink. 

A. 32. Like hopper feeding best with a good variety of 
mixed grains, beef scraps, grit and shell, and give lots of range. 



A. 30. About 50 clucks to a brooder. 

.4. 31. Mostly prepared chick food of some reliable make. 

.4. 32. As many as five and six times a day until feath- 
ered, then we hopper feed them. That is the correct way after 
a certain age. 



CHAS. E. VASS, Washington, N. J. 

BREEDER OFSINCLE AND ROSE-COMB BUFF ORPINGTONS AND SINGLE- 
COMB WHITE AND BLACK ORPINGTONS 

A. 30. Not over 75 chicks in 150 chick brooder, reducinj 
to half the number in three weeks. 



Ill 



A. 
A. 



29. 

30. 



U. R. FISHEL, Hope, Ind: 



WHITE PLYMOUTH ROCK SPECIALIST 



We hatch everything by incubators. 

We place 65 chicks in a 100-chick size brooder. 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



.4. 31. Prepared chick food. 

.4. 32. We feed chicks first week about every two hours, 
feeding in cut straw, making chicks work for the feed. 



A. 31. We have tried everything, chick manna being the 
best for first ten days; also give the grain chick food in litter. 
A. 32. Five times a day at first. 



THOMAS F. RIGG, Iowa Falls, Iowa 

BREEDER OF HOUDANS AND WHITE WYANDOTTES 

A. 29. Practically all chicks are hatched in incubator 
and raised in brooders. 

A . 30. Not more than 25 chicks. I adhere to this firmly. 

A. 31. Chick food and mash. Begin feeding mash when 
chicks are a week old. Scald it with boiling water. 

A. 32. A mash and a mixture of corn, wheat, barley, 
oat-;, millet and buckwheat, all cracked. 



W. R. CURTISS & CO., Ransomville, N. Y. 

BREEDERS OF WHITE WYANDOTTES. SINGLE-COMB WHITE LEGHORNS 
AND MAMMOTH PEKIN DUCKS 

A. 29. Our average hatch for eight months is about 70 
per cent. We hatch 90 per cent of our chicks with incubators. 
A. 30. Fifty, not over 75. 
A. 31. Mixed grains cracked fine. 
A. 32 Keep food in litter before them all the time. 



J. H. JACKSON, Hudson, Mass. 

WHITE WYANDOTTE SPECIALIST 

A. 30. Not over 50 in the largest brooder; 25 or 30 in 
smaller brooders. 

A. 31. Only chick food up to about six or eight weeks 
old, then sometimes a little mash with some scraps in it about 
four times a week for a change, also wheat and plenty of cracked 
corn, grit, also plenty of fresh clean water. 

W. B. CANDEE, De Witt, N. Y. 

WHITE WYANDOTTE SPECIALIST 

.1 . 29. All hatched in machines. 

A. 30. About 50. 

.4. 31. Use a dry feed in hoppers from the start, small 
dish each containing fine grit and charcoal from the start plated 
in brooder, fresh water in porcelain fount every day; this is 
washed thoroughly and in weather at all cold this water is 
warmed. Never let the founts get entirely empty. When about 
two weeks old begin to give a little beef scrap or good lean meat 
conked, also something in the line of green stuff; have used 
cabbage, beets, green oats, and lettuce. 

A. 32. Treat as in 31 until four or five weeks old, then 
give dry mash before them all the time and get them from the 
fine chick food on to tine cracked corn and wheat, and get them 
to three feeds a day as soon as they go to the colony house, 
which is when about six weeks of age. 



ROWLAND G BUFFINTON, Somerset, Mass. 

BREEDER OF BUFF. SILVER PENCILED AND COLUMBIAN WYANDOTTES: 
BUFF AND PARTRIDGE PLYMOUTH ROCKS: BUFF ORPING- 
TONS: RHODE ISLAND REDS; BUFF, BLACK, WHITE 
AND PARTRIDGE COCHIN BANTAMS 

.4. 29. We hatch all chicks with incubators. 
A. 30. From 50 to 100 chicks. 



ALBERT F. DIKEMAN, So. Peabody, Mass. 

BREEDER OF WHITE WYANDOTTES AND WHITE PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

.4. 29. All chicks hatched by machine. The average 
year in and year out is one chick for every two eggs incubated. 

.4. 30. Fifty is the limit and we consider 40 better if 
they are to stay in brooder over four weeks. 

A. 31. Chick food (dry), fine grit, charcoal, and good 
beef scrap before them at all times. Also pure fresh water and 
keep fountains clean. 

A. 32. Sand (on floor) 2 inches deep, cut alfalfa on top 
of this 3 inches deep; in this chick food enough to be always 
foimd by scratching for it. 



I. K. FELCH, Natick, Mass. 

BREEDER OF LIGHT BRAHMAS. WHITE WYANDOTTES, BARRED 
AND WHITE PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

A. 30. I would not keep over 25 chicks in one coop or 
brooder if I wanted nice chicks. 

.4. 32. Feed chicks four times a day until weaned, then 
keep food before them all the time when on dry grains, giving 
as much morning mash as they will eat up clean. They should 
have their liberty to secure grass and insect life. 



G. W. BROWN, Camden, Arkansas 

BREEDER OF WHITE WYANDOTTES, BARRED ROCKS, INDIAN GAMES, 

BUFF COCHINS, LIGHT BRAHMAS, LEGHORNS, PIT GAMES, 

WILD AND BRONZE TURKEYS 

A. 29. Two-thirds of our chicks are hatched artificially, 
as we use many incubators. 

A. 30. We place in the brooders just half the number of 
chicks as they claim for the brooder, in a 100-size brooder we 
place only 50 chicks, finding that we get far better results by 
giving them the extra room. 

.4. 31. We use the prepared chick food. 

A. 32. We feed the young cliicks the prepared chick food 
five to six times daily, all they will clean up, reducing the number 
of times as they grow older. 



B. S. HUME, French Village, 111. 

WHITE WYANDOTTE SPECIALIST 

A. 29. I figure on about 25 per cent infertile and about 
25 per cent dying in the shell by artificial incubation, and in 
the natural way only 25 per cent all told. 

.4. 30. I never crowd my chicks. In a 100 chick size 
brooder 50 is plenty, they grow much faster and do much better 
every way. 

A. 31. Prepared chick food. 

A. 32. At first feed them on clean floor five or six times 
a day and as they grow older not so often. 



N. V. FOGG, Mt. Sterling, Ky. 

BREEDER OF SINGLE COMB WHITE LEGHORNS EXCLUSIVELY 

A. 29. For hatching I use the very best incubators. 
Am using several of the 250-egg and 390-egg size. From 93 



INCUBATION AND BROODING 



to 98 per cent of all eggs set are fertile and from 85 to 90 per cent 
of fertile eggs are hatched. This is about the average of the 
season. 

.4. 30. For several years I used the outdoor brooders and 
found it did not pay to place over 50 or 75 chicks in one brooder 

A. 31. For the chicks I use chick food and beef scrap for 
the first few weeks. Have tried several ways of feeding and 
find the chick food the best feed I can get for raising chicks. I 
also use charcoal and green rye. Charcoal is kept before the 
chicks at all times and beef scrap is put before them after the 
fifth or sixth day. Green rye is fed every day. 

A. 32. I do not feed my chicks at all for the first 48 
hours, then they are fed a light feed of chick food on a little 
plank or pan. After they learn to eat I feed in a light litter at 
first and then as the birds grow older I feed them in a deeper 
litter so they will have to work more for it. I feed about five 
times a day until they are several weeks old but not much at 
a time. 



GEO. A. BARROWS, Groton, N. Y. 

S. C. WHITE LEGHORN SPECIALIST 

A. 29. I hatch all of my chicks with incubators. 

A. 30. Usually 75 chicks, but 50 chicks would be better. 

A. 31. I feed a little chick grit, chick food and oat-flake 
and beef scrap, also charcoal. 

A. 32. I try to keep grit scattered in the litter for the 
little chicks all the time. I feed the chick food and oat-flake 
three times per day and keep a small dish of beef scraps before 
the chicks all the time. 

H. H. FIKE, Libertyville, 111. 

WHITE WYANDOTTE SPECIALIST 

.4. 29. Hatch all by incubators. 

.4. 30. Never more than 35 chicks. 

.4. 31. Steel cut oats first ten days, then a good chick 
food after four weeks. Wheat, eight weeks, mash once a day. 
All skim milk they will drink. 

.4. 32. Three times a day. 



J. L. JEFFERSON, Des Plaines, 111. 

WHITE PLYMOUTH ROCKS EXCLUSIVELY 

A. 29. Have used nothing but incubators for the past 
four years. 

A. 30. Not over 40. 

•4. 31. Steel cut oatmeal and bread soaked in milk until 
about three weeks old, then use wheat instead of the steel cut 
oats, after they are six weeks old use whole oats soaked in water; 
corn when nearly full developed. 

.4. 32. Feed dry feed in litter, and for the first three 
weeks I feed five times a day. After that three times if on range 
which they should be by all means. 



GUS. L. HAINLINE, Lamar, Missouri 

BREEDER OF WHITE WYANDOTTES 

A. 30. Not over 50. 

A. 31. Corn bread made of corn meal, ground bone and 
mixed with milk; this with good water, good grass, and good 
care, makes good chicks. 



G. MONROE WOOD, Woodville, N. Y. 



WHITE LEGHORN SPECIALIST 



I use incubators — my chicks are all hatched arti- 

About 100 chicks; I presume less would be better. 
We feed chick food, wheat and cracked corn, also 



A. 29 
ficially. 

A. 30 

A. 31 
beef scraps. 

A. 32. About five times a day. We feed for the first six 
or seven weeks prepared chick food, also beef scraps. We keep 
the scraps before them all the time; after that we feed cracked 
corn and wheat, good milling wheat at that. 



CHARLES G. PAPE, Fort Wayne, Indiana 

S. C. BLACK MINORCA SPECIALIST 

A. 29. Have used incubators to good advantage. This 
year used hens entirely 
A. 30. Fifty. 
A. 31. First feed yolks of eggs well peppered and bread. 




WHITE WYANDOTTE PEN 

Prepared chick food, plenty of grit and charcoal. 

A. 32. Spread the feed on galvanized iron with a small 
amount of chaff or dry sand scattered or spread over the iron, 
five times daily. 



milk. 



D. F. PALMER & SON, Yorkville, HI. 

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

.4. 29. We hatch about 50 per cent by incubator. 

.4. 30. About 70 to SO chicks. 

.4. 31. Wheat, cracked corn and stale bread soaked 



-4. 32. About five times per day when smal 



WM. H. ROBINSON, La Fayette, Ind. 

BREEDER OF BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS AND WHITE WYANDOTTES 

.1. 29. I use the natural method only in hatching and 
growing my chicks, and get at times almost 100 per cent. 
.1. 30. Do not use them. 



113 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



A. 31. A mixture of small grains I often mix myself, 
with a dish of high grade beef scraps always before them. Small 
grains if possible are always best fed in litter to induce little 
chicks to exercise. I have used a great amount of prepared 
chick food for this purpose with the best results. 

A. 32. By hopper feeding, that is a hopper of beefscraps 
and fine cracked corn and wheat. Fine hard grains or chickfood 
is fed in litter in large brood coops four times per day; good pure 
water at all times. 



MRS. H. W. HAND, White Hall, 111. 

WHITE WYANDOTTES EXCLUSIVELY* 

.4. 29. For early chicks we are almost compelled to use 
incubators, as it is difficult to get broody hens in cold weather. 
Later in the season we prefer the natural method as it is easier 
to prevent young stock from crowding. About half and half. 

A. 30. Not over 50 and later not more than 35. 

.4. 31. I give little chicks dry bread crumbs or oat- 
flakes, or baked johmiycake at first, and very soon put them on 
a good chick food, alternating with johmiycake. Give them 
grit, charcoal, and plenty of lush clean water from the very 
beginning, also green food in the shape of lettuce leaves or rape. 

They must have meal in s e form, either as milk, eggs or meat 

scraps, or a lit T I • ■ chopped lean beef. 

A. 32. The grain is scattered for them to hunt for it; 
BCraps, ground corn, bran, grit and charcoal are kept in 
vessels or hoppers where they can help themselves. Every two 
hours for the first ten days, every three hours after that. 



MRS. CHAS. IONES, Paw Paw, 111. 



A. 32. The first three or four days put feed on boards 
with which to start them; after that I have nice clean chaff that 
I put or scatter chick food in and let them work for all they get. 



MRS. TILLA LEACH, Cheneyville, 111. 

BREEDER OF BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

A. 29. About 33J per cent with incubators; 66§ per cent 
with hens. 

-4. 30. From 25 to 50 chicks. Seldom more than 50 
and I prefer less. 

A. 31. A prepared chick food at first, gradually adding 
wheat and cracked corn. 

A. 32. Usually keep plenty of food by them in litter for 
brooder chicks, in feed boxes for those with hens. I find they 
do better when they have all they want. 



GEO. H. BIE, Racine, Wis. 

BREEDER OF BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

A. 29. I hatch about 50 per cent of my chicks each season 
with incubators. 

A. 30. 1 place about 50 chicks in each brooder. 

.4. 31. For the past three years I have been feeding pre- 
pared chick food in addition to ground feed that I mix and bake 
and crumble up dry. 

A. 32. I do not feed newly hatched chicks until after they 
are 24 hours old. Then I feed a baked food crumbled up fine 
and dry; after the second day I commence feeding chick food 
three times and the baked food twice a day. 



BREEDER OF BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS, BUFF COCHINS. 
GOLDEN BRONZE TURKEYS 

A. 29. Seventy-five per cent are incubator hatched; 25 
per cent of later chicks hatched by the natural method. 

.1. :;<>. Fifty chicks. 

.1. 31. Chick food, later add cracked corn. 

.1 . 32. Three I imes a day. 



HARMON BRADSHAW, Lebanon, Ind. 

S. C. WHITE LEGHORN SPECIALIST 

.4. 29. Ninety per cent with incubators and 10 per cent 
with hens This year I hope to raise them all with incubators. 

A. 30. Do not like to put over 50 together. 

.4. 31. Same as for breeding stock, except hard boiled 
eggs for first two or three meals. 

.4. 32. Same as for adult stock, about every two or three 
hours until about five weeks old. Never feed old stock or young 
chicks more than they will eat up clean. 



C. L. PENCYL, Bloomsburg, Pa. 

BREEDER OF BUFF PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

A . 29. I usually hatch about 50 per cent with incubator 
and 50 per cent by hens. Use the incubator for real early hatches 
when hens won't sit; later on I use hens. 

.4. 30. About 50. 

A. 31. I usually feed hard boiled eggs the first tew .lays. 
also using some good prepared chick food, and then chick food 
altogether with plenty of grit, charcoal and greens. 



ROSEDALE POULTRY FARM CO., 
Greenwood, Mass. 

WHITE WY'ANDOTTES EXCLUSIVELY 

A. 29. Eighty-five per cent with incubators; 15 per cent 
with natural. 

.4. 30. Not over 30 in a 50-chick brooder, and generally 
20 for best results. 

A. 31. A commercial chick food, brown bread, chick 
weed, dandelions, lettuce, cabbage, Swiss. chard, when obtain- 
able. Beef scraps, charcoal, grit, oyster shells and fresh water. 

A. 32. Five times a day (regular) as stated, and chick 
food scattered in cut clover to scratch for at all times. 



FRANK D. HAM, Livingstone, N. Y. 

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCK SPECIALIST 

A. 29. I hatch about one-half artificially and about 60 
per cent of the fertile eggs. 

A. 30. One hundred chicks. 

A. 31. Prepared ohick food and stale bread. 

A. 32. If in brooders I scatter chick food in fine cut clover 
and let them hunt for it, and give them all they want at all times. 



W. S. HARRIS, Mansfield, Mass. 

RHODE ISLAND RED SPECIALIST 

.4. 29. I hatch quarter of my chickens by hens. I shall 
use incubators more in the future as I get better results when 
so doing. 



114 



INCUBATION AND BROODING 



A. 30. Fifty chicks. 

A. 31. Prepared chick food. 

O. E. SKINNER, Columbus, Kansas 

BREEDER OF BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS, BUFF AND 
PARTRIDGE COCHINS 

A. 29. Ninety-eight per cent with incubators; 2 per cent 
with natural. 

A. 30. Not to exceed 75 chicks. 

A. 31. A commercial chick food the first three days. 
I then use some hard boiled eggs tested from incubator. In a 
week or ten days I commence feeding a mash from fine ground 
wheat and corn mixed with about one-third bran; this to be fed 
in clean troughs or dishes. 

.A. 32. The mash in dishes or troughs. The chick food, 
cracked wheat and cracked corn (fine) in litter. 



A. 30. Can manage 75 chicks in a 100-chick size brooder 
in cold weather; later on 50 chicks seem too many. 

A. 31. Commercial chick food of cracked grains. Beef 
scrap and greens. 

A. 32. In litter the first few days; five times per day 
when strong enough to let down into exercising compartment 
in hoppers. 



R. H. CRANDALL, Worth, Mich. 

S. C. AND R. C. WHITE AND BROWN LEGHORNS, WHITE WYANDOTTES, 
PEKIN DUCKS, TOULOUSE GEESE AND BRONZE TURKEYS 

A. 29. Hatch all chicks, ducks and turkeys artificially. 
Toulouse geese under our White AVyandottes, which make fine 
mothers for goslings. 

A. 30. About 50 chicks in a brooder. 




WHITE WYANDOTTE YOUNG STOCK.. ON FREE RANGE 



J. M. WILLIAMS, No. Adams, Mich. 

S. C. AND R. C. BUFF ORPINGTONS 

A. 29. We use incubators altogether, except what we 
farm out. 

A. 30. In the 100-chick size not over 50 chicks, less than 
that better. 

A. 31. Any standard make chick food. 

OTTO O. WILD, Benton Harbor, Mich. 

WHITE WYANDOTTES 



W. W. KULP, Pottstown, Pa. 

BREEDER OF SINGLE AND ROSE-COMB WHITE AND BROWN LEG- 
HORNS, WHITE WYANDOTTES. BUFF AND BARRED 
ROCK;, AND PLKW DICKS 

A. 29. I hatch about two-thirds with the machines. 

A. 30. I place 45 in each brooder. 

A . 31 . Feed them on commercial chick food to start them, 
adding clacked corn and meat after a few weeks. Feed plenty. 
Give thorn bits of meat the fifth day. 



A. 32. I feed the chicks four times a day: part of the 
•4. 29. Seventy-five per cent by incubators, 25 per cent feeds are mixed. Mash, about the same as lor the old hirds. 
by hens. not so much bran. 



11"- 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



F. C. SHEPARD, Toledo, Ohio 

SPECIALTY BREEDER OF BUFF PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

A. 29. About 50 per cent. 

A. 30. Thirty to 40 chicks. 

A. 31. Bread crumbs first two days, after which mostly 
prepared chick food until they are large enough to eat wheat an 
cracked corn, with a feeder of wheat bran where they can get 
all they want at any time. 

A. 32. Same as 31. 



WM. BYWATERS, Camden Point, Mo. 

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCK SPECIALIST 

A. 29. I put a large per cent of eggs in incubators and 
keep them there from ten days to two weeks, and then put them 
under hens owing to the close pedigree I keep of all chicks 
hatched. 

A. 32. I start little chicks on a commercial chick food 
but do not feed as much for ten days as many do. I raise them 
with hens and feed a small amount four times a day from the 
time they are two days until two weeks, and then twice a day. 



AUG. D. ARNOLD, Dillsburg, Pa. 

COLUMBIAN WYANDOTTES EXCLUSIVELY 

A. 29. I hatch about 50 per cent with hens, the balance 
with incubators. Heal early in the season when eggs are scarce 
I use hens. When eggs are plentiful then I use incubators. 

A. 30. About 50. 

A. 31. Prepared foods such as are on the market (with- 
out grit). Now prefer to feed grit by itself and not mixed with 
the feed. 

A. 32. Feed four times a day until a month or six weeks 
old, then three times a day. Use scraps, charcoal and grit. Do 
not feed until two days old, then very little at a time until a 
week old. 



GARDNER & DUNNING, Auburn, N. Y. 

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCK SPECIALISTS 

A. 29. Twenty-five per cent by incubator, 75 per cent 
by hens. 

A. 30. Never more than 50. 

.4. 31. Dry chick food and johnnycake made of corn 
meal and wheat middlings. They have free range with plenty 
of grass and bugs. 

A. 32. Five times per day first week, then three times. 



J. C. MACOMBER, Reading, Mass. 

BREEDER OF PARTRIDGE WYANDOTTES AND BARRED 
PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

A. 29. I should say I hatch about 90 per cent with in- 
cubators and about 10 per cent with hens. 

A. 30. I have used brooders, but in future shall use a 
brooder house. In using brooders, I put about 75 chicks in a 
100-size brooder. 

A. 31. With little chicks I believe that attention and 
care is more essential than kinds of food. The trouble is that 
the majority of them will not eat at all unless they are taught 
to. I have used various kinds of feed, but I have the best re- 
sults as follows: One part corn meal, one part sifted ground 
oats and two parts bran, mixed together perfectly dry, then put 
into an oven and baked. Understand that there is no water or 
nothing moist whatever put with it, simply baked dry. At feed- 
ing time, we take a little warm water and just moisten it, making 
it as dry as possible while having it moist. This we feed for at 
least three weeks. Of course, we mix in a little beef scraps, 
say about 5 per cent and a little charcoal. 

A. 32. As soon as they are large enough we commence 
giving them a dry feed together with the mash, as explained in 
31 as follows: One part wheat, one part hulled oats and one part 
cracked corn. Gradually we leave off the mash. At first every 
two hours, later three times a day. 



A. OBERNDORF, Centralia, Kansas 

BREEDiER OF SINGLE-COMB WHITE LEGHORNS AND BARRED 
PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

A. 29. Two-thirds by incubators, one-third by natural 
method. 

A. 30. Not over 50. 

.4. 31. First week hard boiled eggs, curd, grit and char- 
coal, then gradually corn bread mixed with ground wheat, some 
beef scaps and vegetables, and if in brooder house some cut clover. 

A. 32. Scattering the feed in the litter and also in troughs 
five times a day the first three weeks, and then twice a day. 



E. B. THOMPSON, Amenia, N. Y. 



BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCK SPECIALIST 



F. J. WEHRMEYER, Benton Harbor, Mich. 

WHITE WYANDOTTE SPECIALIST 

.4. 29. Ninety per cent with incubators, 10 per cent with 
natural method. 

.4. 30. We sometimes crowd them the fifst few days 
only. After this we aim to never keep more than 25 in a bunch. 

A. 31. Dry feed exclusively, preferably chick foods as 
bought, always feeding liberally in fine cut litter. Also supply 
green food and beef scraps, etc., same as for adults, using chick 
grit. We start them by dipping their bills in water or milk 
(usually milk) and then literally cover the floor of brooder with 
chick food, good and plenty, so that every pick means a kernel. 
In a day or so this is cleaned up and then feeding begins liber- 
aMy in the fine litter, cleaning often. This waste goes to the older 
birds and none lost. We like to feed finely cut cabbage upon 
clean boards, removing same when done. 



A. 31. Bread crumbs or crackers first few days, then fine 
cracked corn and cracked wheat. After a week old give a mash 
once a day made of corn meal or hominy, wheat bran and white 
wheat middlings. 

A. 32. Cracked corn and wheat, with a mash made as 
above. 



A. 
A. 



DR. O. P. BENNETT, Mazon, 111. 



BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCK SPECIALIST 



29. 
30. 



About 50 per cent either way. 

Not over .50 to 75 in the largest brooders made. 



116 



A. 31. Cracked grains of various kinds, wheat princi- 
pally, later a cooked mash once a day. 

A. 32. Throw cracked grains in litter, mash in trough; 
about every two or three hours. 



INCUBATION AND BROODING 

C. H. WYCKOFF, Aurora, N. Y, 



C. BRICAULT, M. D. V., Andover, Mass. 

BREEDER OF WHITE WYANDOTTES 

A. 29. All my hatching is done in the standard made 
incubators. 

A. 31. A prepared chick food, beef scraps, grit, and a 
run on grass. 



fe -ik 


te^^feii 




j-'^rfSIti, --J 


£j*f£ 














■^■r^ 5 "- 


,i~>^ 





YOUNG LEGHORNS FEEDING 

A. 32. Chick food in hoppers from the day they are put 
in brooders, beef scraps also. After they are six weeks old, 
cracked wheat and corn is added, then whole wheat and cracked 
corn. 



ARTHUR G. DUSTON, So. Framingham, Mass. 

WHITE WYANDOTTE SPECIALIST 

A.' 29. Fifty per cent artificially. I have not yet gotten 
accommodations for running all the incubators I want to run. 

A. 30. Not over 50. 

A. 31. I start them on rolled oats and prepared chick 
food at three weeks. Dry mash is added and next year I want 
to feed skim milk. I believe there is nothing to equal it. I 
feed every two hours. 

ARTHUR G. BOUCK, Frankfort, N. Y. 

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS EXCLUSIVELY 

A. 29. I hatch about 75 per cent of my chicks with 
incubators and about 25 per cent by the natural method. 

A. 30. I place about 50 chicks in each brooder. 

A. 31. When from thirty-six to forty-eight hours old I 
feed a small amount of chick grit. I then feed a good chick 
food with about 10 per cent chick grit mixed with it. I also 
give them an occasional feeding of hard boiled eggs, using the 
infertile eggs that are tested out of my incubators. 

A. 32. I scatter the chick food in the litter of the brood- 
ers, making the chicks scratch for it. I believe one of the 
secrets of success is in keeping the chicks hustling for their 
living. I feed from three to five times daily when small. 



S. C. WHITE LEGHORNS 

A. 29. Hatch all by incubators. 

A. 30. Fifty to 100 chicks. 

A. 31. About the same as adult fowls except that the 
grains are cracked or broken somewhat finer while they are 
small. 

A. 32. Give all feed to chicks dry, scattered on wide 
boards. Feed four times a day and no more than they will 
clean up each time. 



IRVING F. RICE, Courtland, N. Y. 

S. C. WHITE LEGHORNS 

A. 29. I use incubators to hatch every chick I raise. 

A. 30. Not to exceed 60. 

A. 31. Johnnycake and prepared chick food until old 
enough to eat cracked corn and wheat. One meal a day of pot 
cheese. 

A. 32. The food is placed on clean boards until they are 
large enough to eat from a trough. We commence feeding five 
times a day. When they are larger and older, only three times. 
"Little and often" is our motto. Never overfeed them; this is 
the greatest cause of little chick mortality. 



J. T. THOMPSON, Hope, Ind. 

BREEDER OF WHITE PLYMOUTH ROCKS AND MAMMOTH 
BRONZE TURKEYS 

A. 31. For the first two days I feed them nothing but 
hard boiled eggs. After that time and until they get old enough 
to eat cracked corn and wheat, I feed them on a prepared chick 
food, as I consider it about the best food that was ever com- 
pounded for little chicks. I always keep them well supplied 
with charcoal, grit, green foods, etc. I never feed any wet foods. 




THE WORLDS GREATEST POULTRY MARKET 
A photogjaph reproduction of South Water Street' Chicago showing 
loads of live poultry being delivered to commission men and dealers. 

A. 32. I always feed the grains in the straw so as to make 
them exercise as much as possible. When they are small I feed 
them three or four times per day. After they get to be a month 
or so old I feed them only twice per day, morning and evening. 



117 



SUCCESSFUL CHICK REARING-NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL 

SIMPLE, PRACTICAL ADVICE FOR THE BEGINNER— HOW TO HATCH AND 
RAISE CHICKS UNDER HENS OR WITH INCUBATORS AND BROODERS 

P. T. WOODS, M. D. 




VERY one who keeps poultry is interested in 
the best way to grow little chicks whether they 
are to be reared by natural or the artificial 
method. Unfortunately there is no "one and 
only" best way. Many methods of raising 
chicks which seem almost directly opposed to 
one another are equally successful in the hands 
of skillful men, and it is also true that chick rais- 
ing like raising of all new-born animals is often largely a matter 
experiment, that is, what will do for one brood may not do for 
another under what are apparently the same conditions and the 
poultryinan must always be guided by his own good judgment, 
observing carefully each flock and endeavoring to give all good, 
sound, common sense treatment. 

There are a number a good rations for feeding small chicks 
and in artificial rearing it frequently happens that some broods 
of chicks require more heat than do others. For this reason 
we frequently see in books on poultry raising a compilation of 
the advice of many different poultrymen, some of which seems 
conflicting and all of which is very confusing to the beginner 
who dnrs not know what method to employ or how to use it. 
This article is intended for beginners with poultry and 
will be confined to one plan of chick rearing and one which can 
be depended upon, with slight modifications, to fit almost every 
case. We believe that if the beginner will follow the advice 
here given he will meet with reasonably good success, and it is 
certain that he cannot stray far from the right path. , 

As there are still many who keep fowls only in a small 
way and do not use incubators and brooders, the natural hen 
method will be considered first. 

SITTING HENS 

A broody hen that will not sit where you want her to is 
probably one of the most exasperating creatures in existence, 
and no doubt has sorely tried the temper and patience of many 
who will read this article. 

To begin with the mere fact that a hen is broody is not 
an indication that she is fit to set. You should use just as 
great care in selecting sitters as you would choose fowls to breed 
from. Take a hen that has a quiet mild disposition, that hugs 
the nest tightly and is not liable to fly off into a hysterical cackle 
at the least provocation. Pullets may often be set and give 
satisfactory results, but as a rule the most reliable sitters are 
yearlings or two-year-olds that have lived long enough to get- 
over their flighty youthful dispositions. Select for sitteis 
quiet,- good-sized, healthy hens that show a disposition to hug 
tight to your hand or snuggle down on to the nest after you 
have removed and then replaced them. Let them stay for two 
or three days on a nest of their own selection before you attempt 
to move them to new quarters, and when you do move them 
to the new nest, move them at night. 

Provide comfortable nest boxes with a reasonable amount 
of head room for the hens. Boxes 12 to 14 inches square with 
about 14 inches head room make very comfortable nests for 
sitters. Fill in a little moist earth or a sod turned upside down 
into the bottom of the box, dishing the earth slightly in the 
center so as to have it slightly concave with the corners elevated, 
thus preventing the eggs from rolling away from the hen and 
at the same time not having so great a depression that the eggs 



will roll into a heap in the center of the nest. On top of the 
earth place a little soft straw or soft hay, only a very thin layer, 
and dust this well with a good insect powder. 

Place three or four nest eggs or infertile eggs in the nest, 
give the hen a good thorough dusting with insect powder, and 
place her in her new quarters, shutting her on the nest by means 
of a burlap bran sack and leave her alone until late the following 
afternoon. At this time she may be let off for a feed of whole 
corn, water, grit, shell and given an opportunity to dust herself 
and clean out. While she is off the nest remove the nest eggs 
and place the eggs you intend to set carefuly in the nest. Give 
the hen an opportunity to return to the nest of her own accord. 
If she will not return to her nest remove the sitting and replace 
the nest eggs, and put her on again for another 24 hours; then 
try her again. 

As a rule if she is a good sitter she will get right down to 
business. Let her off at regular intervals once each day to feed 
and exercise. If the weather is cold cover the eggs with a piece 
of flannel blanket while the hen is off. Test the eggs on the 
seventh day and remove all infertile ones and dead germs. 
It is a good plan to set two or three hens at the same time and 
when the eggs are tested out give one or two hens a full comple- 
ment of fertile eggs and reset the other one on a fresh lot. Num- 
ber all your sitting hens and keep a careful record of them, 
seeing that they return each to her own nest. Never give a 
hen more eggs than she can cover comfortably. Some hens 
will take care of but eleven, others will well cover fifteen, but it 
is seldom wise to exceed this number. 

The room in which the birds are set should not be too 
light but should be well ventilated and must be kept clean, 
Three days before the chicks are due give the hen another dust- 
ing with Persian insect powder and at hatching time let her 
alone. The little chicks will not require any food until 24 to 36 
hours after they have hatched. 

RAISING HEN-HATCHED CHICKS 

When the hen is to leave the nest with her brood provide 
her with a comfortable brood-coop having a dry wood floor. 
Keep the little chicks confined close to the hen for the first 
<lay or two, then give them a little run outside the brood-coop, 
keeping the hen confined. It is well to always keep the hen 
confined and let the chicks run. Keep a plentiful supply of 
pure water, small grit, chick-size charcoal and good sweet pure 
beef scrap always before the hen, and feed her on cracked corn 
and small red wheat. Give the little chicks a good dry grain 
chick food scattered at first near the hen so that she can call 
them to it, after this scatter it just a little out of her reach. 
Give an occasional feeding of thoroughly boiled rice (so that 
each kernel is separate and almost dry). Good clean broken 
rice can usually be had cheaply. Change the hen and chicks 
to new ground frequently. Give an occasional apple or apple 
parings, potato parings and beets fed raw. 

As soon as possible get the chicks where they can have a 
green run on good grass but be careful about letting them out 
on the grass until the sun is well up. Provide a good chick 
shelter where the chicks can run to it to get out of the storm, 
and see that they have plenty of shade. 

In winter time the hens should have comfortable quarters 
in small colony houses having a board or cement floor, plenti- 



118 



INCUBATION AND BROODING 



fully littered with chaff, mow sweepings, cut clover or other 
similar materials. Look the hen over occasionally for lice, and 
be sure that there are no lice on the little chicks. Examine 
a few of them once a week looking them over carefully, parti- 
cularly their heads; however, if a first-class insect powder is used 
there will usually be very little trouble from lice. If the small 
chicks get very lousy it will be necessary to go over them care- 
fully and pick off the lice. Pure Dalmatian or Persian insect 
powder, though expensive, is probably the best remedy for lice 
powder and cheapest in the end, and it is not injurious to either 
fowls or chicks. 

The hen will usually attend to weaning the small chicks as 
soon as they are fairly well fledged, and will usually teach them 
to eat cracked corn and wheat by the time they are ten days to 
two weeks old so that the chick food can be fed less and less, 
and gradually replaced by cracked corn and wheat. 

When the chicks are weaned give them a liberal range on 
grass land, place them in colony coops of comfortable size, 
twenty-five to fifty in a flock, and give them a hopper of cracked 
corn, beef scrap, charcoal, grit and see that they have plenty 
of pure water. They can then usually be trusted to take care 
of themselves, if provided with shelter from storm and sun and 
given liberal range. 

HATCHING WITH INCUBATORS 

One of the most important things for the beginner to learn 
in incubator operation is to carefully read and follow the manu- 
facturer's directions. Probably the most satisfactory place to 
run an incubator is in a well ventilated cellar or half cellar where 
a fairly uniform temperature can be maintained. Incubators 
do their best in a place where the temperature seldom goes 
below 45 or 40 degrees or above 60 to 70 degrees. The room 
or cellar must be well ventilated since the lamp consumes a 
considerable amount of the oxygen and the incubator is abso- 
lutely dependent upon the air in the room in which it is operated 
for its supply of pure fresh air to the interior of the egg chamber. 

Set the machine up carefully, see that it is running in 
good shape and the regulating device properly adjusted to 
hold the temperature at the desired degree, which is usually 
102J until the first test and 103 thereafter until the chicks be- 
gin to hatch, when it may run to 104 or even 105. 

Select your eggs for hatching as carefully as if you were 
intending to place them under hens. Do not fill the incubator 
beyond its capacity. Never practice "doubling up" or piling 
the eggs one on top of the other. Place the eggs in the machine 
and let them alone until the morning of the third day when 
they should be taken out for their first turning; thereafter turn 
twice a day until the evening of the 18th day, when the machine 
should be closed and let alone until the eggs have hatched. 
As a rule it is not wise to supply too much ventilation, and 
generally it is best not to cool or air the eggs where the trays 
have to be taken from the machine for turning. Where the 
machines have mechanical devices by which the eggs are turned 
without removing them from the machine the eggs should be 
cooled for a few minutes each day, but much better results 
will be had if the trays are always removed from the machine 
and the eggs turned by hand, removing the eggs from the center 
of the tray rolling the others inward, and placing the eggs that 
were taken out in the places now left vacant at the ends of 
the tray. The reason for this is that no machine heated by lamp 
or hot w r ater heats evenly in all parts, and by changing tho 
position of the eggs at each turning all are given an equal chance 
and any inequalities in the temperature of the egg chamber 
are thus offset. 

Learn to let the machine alone at hatching time as it is 
now too late to remedy any mistakes which you have made 
during the hatch, and the machine will do better if not inter- 



fered with. Opening the incubator door while the hatch is 
going on allows moisture to escape and may injure the balance 
of the eggs. 

On the 21st day when the chicks are all out remove the 
egg trays and all shells and dead eggs to give the chicks plenty 
of head room. Open all ventilators wide and leave the door of 
the egg chamber open a crack just the width of a match. Then 
darken the machine by hanging a piece of dark paper in front 
of the glass door, and let the chicks alone until the next day. 
For the first 24 hours after the little chicks have hatched they 
need rest and quiet, and should not be disturbed. If they are 
kept dark, have plenty of fresh air and are comfortably warm, 
they will be better off for this day's rest and there will be less 
difficulty in rearing them, as they will make much bettter pro- 
gress in the absorption of the egg yolk which they have brought 
with them into the world. Rest, warmth and pure air are all 
that the little chicks need for the first 24 hours. 

On the afternoon of the 22nd day they should be taken 
to the brooder for their first feed. 



THE BROODER 



t 



I like best the so-called three-apartment brooder, one 
which has a front or exercise apartment and a rear or brooding 
apartment, which is again divided into the space under the 
hover and the space outside of it. In such a brooder either 
outdoor or indoor pattern, it is possible to raise chicks with com- 
paratively little trouble. Have the brooder warmed up and 
waiting for the chicks. It is best to run it two or three days 
before the chicks are put into it to make sure that everything 
is in good working order. Scatter over the floor of the brooding 
chamber a good half-inch bed of thick clover or mow sweepings 
and sprinkle freely with chick-size grit, chick-size charcoal and 
a good dry chick food. Put small-sized galvanized drinking 
fount in one corner of the brooding chamber and have it filled 
with pure fresh water. 

See that the hover space is at 95 degrees with the hover 
empty. When you place the chicks in the brooder remove the 
hover and give them all a chance to pick at the chick food in 
the fitter. Sprinkle a little in front of them to attract their 
attention. If convenient when they are put in give each a little 
drink by dipping its bill in the water. In about five or ten 
minutes put on the hover and tuck the chicks carefully under 
it. Raise one of the hover tabs so that they will have a door- 
way in and out that they can see plainly. This hover tab of 
felt is to be lowered again after the chicks learn to go in and out. 

Visit the chicks again in an hour or two to see that they 
are all right. Take off the hover and give them all another 
opportunity to feed for five or ten minutes, then put on the hover 
and tuck them in again and close the brooder for the night. 
Do not be alarmed if the temperature has run up to 100 degrees 
in warm weather or 105 or 110 degrees if the temperature out- 
side the brooder is below freezing. You must be guided more 
by the comfort of the chicks than by the temperature as indi- 
cated by the thermometer. In cold weather, particularly when 
running a brooder outdoors, the chicks need more heat than 
they do in warm weather. Visit the brooder again just after 
dark and again at bedtime to be sure that the chicks are all 
right and that none of them are huddling outside the hover. 
If they appear comfortable and are ranged around the outside 
of the hover with heads peeping from beneath tho felts they 
are all right, and no attempt should be made to lower the heat, 
as the brooder will in all probability cool off a little during the 
night. 

Keep them confined to the brooding chamber for three 
days to make sure that they have learned that under the hover 
is the place to get warm. Keep charcoal, beef scrap, granu- 
lated bone grit and pure water always before them, and a little 



Hit 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



dish or trough filled with chick food. Visit them every two or 
three hours and scatter a little cluck food in the litter of the 
brooding chamber, removing the hover for a few minutes at 
each visit to give all a chance to feed. Aim to keep the chicks 
comfortable and busy and see that they are well fed. 

Beginning on the third day give a little thoroughly boiled 
rice and some stale bread crumbs moistened with scalded sweet 
milk. Give this food in addition to the regular chick food and 
feed it occasionally, say once a day or every other day, until 
they are two weeks old. Also supply them with raw apple 
parings, potato parings or a split raw beet. 

Beginning on the third day let them down for a little run 
in the exercise apartment which lias been well Uttered with cut 
clover, chaff or mow sweepings. After they have been down a 
few minutes drive them back and shut them in. Repeat this 
at each feeding time, (every two or three hours) until the after- 
noon of the fourth day, when they may be let down late in the 




YOUNG CHICKS, ENJOYING THE SUNSHINE AND EXERCISE AROUND BROODER N 



afternoon and allowed to run back and forth until bedtime. 
Be careful to teach them to run back into the brooding chamber 
and get underneath the hover to get warm. Remember that 
the chicks only know what they are taught. Thereafter feed 
the chicks only in the exercise apartment and keep their water 
fount there. 

By the time the chicks have been in the brooder five or six 
days the runway into the exercise apartment can safely be left 
open at all times. As a rule it is a good plan at first if there is 
a partition of felt tabs between the brooding apartment and the 
exercise apartment to pin up one of the tabs to make a little 
open doorway until the chicks get used to running back and 
forth. After the chicks become accustomed to their new home 
these tabs can be allowed to hang down, as the chicks will 
readily find their way beneath them. 

When the chicks are a week old in warm weather and when 
they are from ten days to two weeks old in colder weather they 
should be given ^ little run outside the brooder. Do not permit 
them to stay out long the first few times. Let them out for a 
little run then drive them back. Gradually increase the size 
of the run daily as they grow accustomed to it. Never permit 



them to huddle or crowd in sunny spots, as if they once form the 
habit they are sure to become chilled. Keep the chicks on the 
move. It is of the utmost importance not to let them huddle and 
to keep them moving. Remember that you have to teach them 
all that they need to learn just as a mother hen would teach 
them how to take care of themselves. Put a little pile of sifted 
hard coal ashes in their run occasionally for them to pick over. 
Usually it is a good plan after the first week to begin feed- 
ing a little small red wheat sifted, clean fine-cracked corn to 
take the place of a part of the chick food, gradually weaning from 
the chick food until they have only wheat and cracked corn as the 
grain ration. The chicks will remain in the brooder until they are 
fairly well fledged. The length of the time depends somewhat 
upon the chicks themselves and the season of the year. They are 
ready to be weaned when six weeks old and even in very usually 
cold weather are seldom ever kept in the brooder beyond the 
age of eight weeks. 

If there is any tendency 
to looseness of the bowels 
among little chicks see that 
they eat charcoal and are 
given a little scalded milk 
containing a small amount 
of grated nutmeg, allowing 
them to drink all that they 
will several times daily. This 
will usually bring them 
around all right. Boiled rice 
over which a little finely gran- 
ulated charcoal has been 
sprinkled is excellent. 

When the chicks are a 
week old accustom them to 
a very gradual temperature. 
Run the lamp a little lower 
every few days until you 
have them comfortable at 
a temperature of about 75 
to 80 degrees by the time the 
chicks are a month old. Do 
not be in too great a hurry 
to reduce the temperature, 
and do not try to reduce it 
too rapidly. Be guided in 
this by the comfort of the 
chicks. Usually by the time 
they are a month old you 
will find them on top of the hover at night, and as soon as 
they begin this it will be well to remove the hover altogether 
to give them more room in the brooder. 

When the clucks are removed from the brooder place them 
in comfortable colony coops, twenty-five to fifty in a flock, and 
keep them confined near the coop for the first three or four days, 
enclosing them in a wire run so that they cannot stray away. 
Have the brood coop comfortably bedded with chaff, cut straw 
or a similar substance, keep beef scrap, cracked corn, charcoal, 
grit and pure water always by them, and as soon as they have 
become accustomed to their new quarters give them a liberal 
range. Clean all brooders, brood-coops and colony coops once 
a week. If the chicks are not allowed liberal range they must 
be supplied with plenty of green food, and should be given an 
occasional feeding of stale bread crumbs moistened with milk, 
or after they are weaned from the brooder table scraps or a mash 
containing table scraps, some meat food and lightly seasoned 
with salt. Poultry of all ages need food containing a little 
salt occasionally in order to keep them in good condition. Where 
the birds cannot have range to pick up what they need for them- 
selves you must endeavor to supply it. 



120 



INCUBATION AND BROODING 



INCUBATING AND REARING CHICKS 

Detailed Instructions for Natural and Artificial 
Incubation and the Operation of Brooders 

A SATISFACTORY SYSTEM FOR FEEDING CHICKS 

J. D. MASON, Gladys, Va. 

[The following practical article is taken from Farmers' Bulletin No. 5« 
"Poultry Raising in Virginia" published in December, 1905 by the Board 
of Agriculture and Immigration of Virginia. Editor ] 

ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION 

Very clear and practical instructions come with all incuba- 
tors of the best make, and if carefully followed even inexperi- 
enced persons can run them successfully. 

Nearly all poultry writers favor a damp cellar as the best 
place for hatching chickens in an incubator, because of the 
moisture. We doubt the advisability of this. It is absolutely 
necessary that the embryos have pure air and everybody knows 
that the air is seldom pure where there is constant dampness. 
If a dugout cellar is used the floor should be cemented to keep it 
dry and the air pure. If the cellar is even with the ground it 
is not necessary to cement it, for such cellars are seldom damp. 
Sprinkle the floor well when the eggs begin to pip and keep this 
up all during the time the eggs are hatching and this will give 
all the moisture needed. Get all the pure air possible without 
a draft, and the best way to secure this condition is to have the 
windows open but sufficiently screened to prevent drafts. 

TEST FOR PROPER VENTILATION 

After placing the incubator so that it is perfectly level, 
open the door and ventilators, place a lighted candle inside, 
close door and carefully test the amount of air inside by gradu- 
ally closing ventilators just sufficiently to keep the candle burn- 
ing. If it begins to flicker, there is not enough air and the 
ventilators should be opened just a little more or just enough 
to keep the candle burning. Test this for about ten minutes 
before starting off hatch and remove before putting eggs in. 
Few manufacturers of incubators give this test in their instruc- 
tions, but it is most important. Oxygen is necessary for the 
embryo after it begins to breathe. The lack of it causes poor 
hatches and weak chickens. Some poultrymen claim that it is 
the chief cause of poor hatches and weak chickens. 

For profitable broilers, we start our hatches in February. 
We get our highest percentage of chickens from eggs hatched 
in April. In our brooders we raise them equally as well when 
hatched out early, although we do not get as good results in 
hatching. After the end of May in this climate, unless the 
weather is unusually cool, eggs do not hatch so well nor are the 
chicks as thrifty. 

All eggs used for hatching should be carefully selected and 
all mis-shapen eggs rejected. Yearling and two-year-old hens 
furnish the best hatching eggs. 

After seeing that the incubator is at the required tempera- 
ture of one hundred and two and a half degrees, it will only 
require the attention of turning the eggs twice a day, morning 
and night, after the third day, the testing out of the fertile 
eggs, and the filling and trimming of lamps daily. In very 
sudden changes of weather, the temperature may require lower- 
ing or raising, as may be required, keeping the temperature 
at one hundred and two and a half degrees as nearly as possible, 
by raising or lowering the lamps. 

TESTING THE EGGS 

Excellent egg-testers, with instructions as to use, are 
furnished with most incubators. These testers can be placed 



on an ordinary lamp, and the eggs are best tested at night when 
the room is dark. On the sixth day of incubation we consider 
them at their best for testing. A good strong germ has the ap- 
pearance of a spider in the egg. A blood circle adhering to the 
shell denotes a dead germ; a perfectly clear as well as a cloudy 
egg is infertile and should be removed from the incubator. 
These rejected eggs can be re-tested and the clear ones taken 
out for use. In some markets they can be sold at a lower 
market rate per dozen to bakers, for they are perfectly good for 
cooking purposes, or they may be used at home, or hard-boiled, 
chopped up and given to young growing stock. 

From the tenth to the eighteenth day cool eggs by leaving 
the door of the incubator open after the morning turning of eggs, 
letting the temperature drop to ninety degrees. 

THE LAST TURNING OF THE EGGS 

On the morning of the nineteenth day the eggs are turned 
for the last time, provided they are not already pipping. They 
should all be carefully spread out in the trays in order that 
the chicks may fall into the nursery of the machine, both from 
the back and the front and so prevent unnecessary tramping 
over the eggs that are hatching. At this time the ventilators 
are closed until the hatch is two-thirds over. 

NATURAL INCUBATION 

Hatching eggs under hens is a much simpler matter. In 
some experiments we made in hatching out White Leghorn 
eggs under mongrel hens, we got the best results from hens fed 
on com while sitting, corn being the greatest heat producing 
food. 

Hens should not have eggs put under them until they have 
remained on the nest for a day or so. If they do not leave the 
nest for the roost at night, it is safe to put eggs under them. 
Our hens, which were set in the hen houses, did not do so well 
as those set where they were undisturbed by the laying hens. 
If it is necessary to move the hen, they will generally accept the 
new nest provided the change is made at night. Dark nests 
give the best results, and they should be well filled with straw 
or dried grass. 

From twelve to fifteen eggs are put under a hen, depending 
on the size of the hen. In cold weather it is best to put the 
fewer unmber of eggs, while late in the spring as many as seven- 
teen can be put under them. It is just as necessary to select 
the eggs and use only well shaped eggs for putting under hens 
as for the artificial method of hatching. In warm weather when 
the chicks are liable to dry in the shell it is a great help to thor- 
oughly sprinkle the eggs. There need be no fear of chilling for 
the heat of the hen will quickly bring them back to the proper 
temperature. If two or more hens are set at the same time, 
it is advisable to give one of the hens both lots of chickens to 
mother and reset the other. 

Before starting our hatches, we thoroughly fumigate our 
houses by burning sulphur candles in them, and as an extra 
precaution, we sprinkle both hen and nest with lice powder. 
Lice will lower a hen's vitality, reducing her heat and causing 
in this way poor hatches. 

Hens are inactive while sitting, and therefore require less 
food than otherwise. It is not necessary to feed them on the 
nest. Have food and water accessible, but let their appetite 
be the judge of when and how much to eat. As far as possible 
let them be undisturbed while sitting. 

THE REARING OF YOUNG CHICKENS 

We allow our chicks to remain in the incubator forty-eight 

hours. They will not require food nor water during this time. 

When first put in the brooder a little "pearl grit" is given 



121 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



them and they are also watered, care being taken to take the 
chill off the water. Very cold water is fatal to young chickens, 
causing diarrhoea, and it should always be tempered before it 
is given them. 

The floor of the brooder should be covered with dry sand 
to the depth of about an inch, over which is scattered cut clover 
or chaff to make a scratching litter about an inch deep. 

Two houis after they are put in the brooder they have their 
first meal, consisting of a prepared dry grain ration known as 
"chick feed." This can be purchased from any dealer in poultry 
supplies, or it can be made at home according to the following 
formula: 

AN EASILY PREPARED CHICK FOOD 

Six pounds cracked wheat; two pounds cracked corn (fine); 
one pound rolled oats, or pin-head oatmeal; one pound millet 
seed; half pound broken rice; two pounds fine granulated beef 
scrap; half pound granulated bone; six pounds pearl grit. 

FEEDING THE CHICKENS 

This should be fed every two hours during the first three 
days giving three handfuls scattered in the litter, to every 
hundred chicks. From the third to the 10th day the same 
amount should be fed from six a. m. to six p. m. every three 
hours. Fresh water and ground charcoal should be kept 
before them at all times. From ten days to four weeks the feed 
should be increased to four handfuls given four times a day. 
Begin at this time to keep scrap meat before them. After four 
weeks increase again, giving five handfuls three times daily. 
From six wicks up to eight weeks add about three handfuls of 
cracked corn and whole wheat to the ration. When feeding 
ii these quantities do not seem sufficient, or it' at the next meal 
it is found that the last meal was not entirely consumed, increase 
or decrease from these directions. The object is to give enough 
to make them thrive, yet at the same time regulating the amount 
so they will keep hungry enough to scratch. It is necessary that 
they get exercise if they are to make progress. 



SITTING A HEN 

SOME PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS 
ON NATURAL INCUBATION 

ALEX. CLEGG, East Amherst, N. S. 

A fairly successful method of mine has been with a closed 
box divided into six nests. In the bottom of each nest is placed 
a thin clover or grass sod turned grass side down. This sod 
nicely hollowed out and with very little straw on the earth and 
the roots of the grass, makes an ideal nest and gives the right 
moisture required by the eggs. How often have we noticed 
that the hen that stole her nest away in the hedge row where 
she would get drenched by the rain, invariably brought off the 
full complement of chicks. There were no infertile eggs nor any 
chicks too weak to break the shell. 

After the hen has sat two nights on the nest, she may be 
well sulphured and placed on the eggs (after dark invariably) 
and the lid closed down. About midday is a good time to feed. 
When the lid is opened, any hens not coming off are lifted from 
the nest and placed near the food. In from 15 minutes to an 
hour the hens that have not found their way back to their eggs 
are caught and placed on the nest and the lid is closed down 
until the same time the next day. 

The first time or two off to feed the hen should be watched 
and quietly worked, if possible, toward the new nest. She will 



rarely go astray after twice finding her way to her eggs though 
the nest may be quite strange to her. 

By sitting three hens the same day the chicks may be given 
to two hens and the third reset. 



MODERN INCUBATOR HOUSE 

NOVEL AND PRACTICAL METHOD OF VENTILA- 
TION—DARK ROOM EQUIPMENT FOR EGG TESTING 

While many illustrations of incubator cellars or houses 
have been published from time to time, we do not recall that 
many plans have been offered which showed a dark room for 
testing eggs. The incubator house, shown in accompanying 
plans, was designed by Dr. P. T. Woods, several houses of this 
pattern are now in successful operation. 

On all plants where a considerable number of machines are 
run, the testing of eggs becomes an item of considerable labor 
and consumes a large amount of time. If this testing has to be 
done at night, it lengthens the hours for the poultryman so 
much that during the hatching season he loses a great deal of 
much needed rest, whereas if some means are provided for testing 
the eggs during the day, there are usually odd moments when 
the work can be done without interference with the regular 
routine of the plant. It was for this purpose in saving night 
work on the poultry farm that the incubator house with dark 
room was devised. 

This house, or more properly, half-cellar, is a frame build- 
ing built above a brick foundation, a slight excavation being 
made and a 2 feet 6 inch or 3 foot brick wall built, against which 
the earth is banked up on the outside and on which the sills of 
the frame building are laid. The sills are laid in cement to make 
a tight joint. The sides of the building are sheathed with rab- 
beted pine boards laid lengthwise on both sides of the studs. 
The lower board reaches below the sill and laps over brick work 
to avoid drafts. The roof is of rough boards laid on rafters 
which are placed 2 feet apart and is covered with a good quality 
of shingles. The rafters and frame are afforded additional sup- 
port by tie beams, as indicated in plan. 

The nine windows of the building are all double windows, 
the outer windows being hinged at the top, the inner ones hinged 
at the bottom, so that they may be opened as shown in the 
sectional view (Fig. 2). The space beneath the roof is not 
ceiled in, the portion between the rafters and tie-beams being 
left open so that the air from the windows may be deflected up 
against the roof. In such a building, the windows may be left 
open on both sides of the building, affording excellent ventila- 
tion and at the same time not permitting any direct draft to 
blow upon the machines. The large door in the end of the build- 
ing is provided with double doors, the inner one having ven- 
tilating holes as shown in (Fig. 2). The house is 59 feet long 
by 21 feet wide and 7 feet 6 inches from floor to eaves, inside 
measurement. The floor is made of cement or hard packeil 
gravel. This house will accommodate twenty-one 360-egg size 
machines, rights and lefts, as indicated in Fig. 1. 

The dark room is 6 by S feet and is ceiled up with matched 
boards to the rafters. It is provided with a wide door, which 
for purposes of ventilation is best made of a stout frame covered 
with burlap or bran sacking. In one end of the room there 
should be two shelves, one just high enough to place the egg 
tester on, and have the egg come in direct line with the eye 
when the operator is seated on an ordinary high stool, and he 
will be able to pass the eggs before the light very rapidly. The 
second shelf should be beneath this and should be of sufficient 
size to accommodate two incubator trays, one full and one 
empty, and a basket having two compartments, one for infer 



122 



INCUBATION AND BROODING 



tile eggs and one for dead germs. It is very little trouble to 
furnish a dark room in an incubator cellar, in this manner and 
the expense is small. Such a room should be ventilated by a 
hinged window, the glass of which has been painted black or 
has a black cloth tacked over it. It is surprising what an 
amount of labor such a room, properly equipped, will save in 
course of a season in running a number of incubators. Pro- 



Other useful furniture in the incubator cellar, which made 
it possible to handle the machines so easily was a plain, pine 
board table and a five-gallon oil can having a quick flow, easily 
controlled spigot. This table (shown in Fig. 1) was 'placed in 
the center of the incubator cellar, the machines were rights and 
lefts arranged along the sides of the room, which was a little 
over 50 feet in length. The lamps of the machines at one end 




-GROUND PLAN FOR LARGE INCUBATOR CELLAR 



visions can also be made for testing by aid of direct or reflected 
sunlight by having in the outer window a special pane fitted, 
with an opening like that in the egg tester and a mirror arranged 
outside the building to reflect the rays of the sun. 

The writer ran twenty large machines in an incubator 
cellar equipped with a dark room as above described and by 
keeping a careful record of the time spent in the incubator 



of the table, were quickly filled and trimmed by earring them to 
the table one at a time, the oil-can resting on the end nearest 
the operator, then the can was transferred to the opposite end of 
the table and the lamps of the machines on that end were cared 
for. This is a small matter, yet it proved to be the means of 
saving a considerable amount of labor. The lamps being carried 
to the table to be filled could then be set on a firm surface for 




FIG. 2-SECTIONAL VIEW SHOWING VENTILATING SYSTEM 



cellar he was surprised to find that, after doing all the work re- cleaning, which was quickly accomplished by means of a pocket 



quired, filling the lamps, trimming them, attending to the regu- 
lation of the machines, filling the machines, turning the eggs, 
testing them and everything necessary from starting the eggs 
until the chicks were ready to be taken to the brooders, the 
average time required per machine was not over ten minutes 
per day. 



knife and a soft cloth. With a cement floor and the table on 
rollers or small wheels it would be still more convenient. 

Such an incubator house will be found a most satisfactory 
style to run, it being easy to have perfect ventilation at all 
times, and very little difficulty in keeping the heat at an even 
temperature even in warm weather. 



123 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



MODEL BROODING HOUSE 

PLANNED TO ACCOMMODATE CHICKS NEWLY 
HATCHED TO THOSE SIX WEEKS OLD-FORTY- 
TWO PENS WITH "PROGRESSIVE" RUNS INTO 
WHICH THE CHICKS ARE DAILY MOVED— INCUBA- 
TOR ROOM AND IMPORTANCE OF VENTILATION 

C. H. PAYNE, C. E. 

We have visited a number of poultry plants, both in Europe 
and America, and have been astonished to see the great dis- 
advantages under which poultrymen are frequently struggling. 
The trouble is, so many plants have grown up bit by bit, without 
any definite object in view. Additions have been made to suit 
the convenience of the moment, and as a whole they are far 
from economic or satisfactory. In starting a poultry plant, no 
matter whether you have an acre or a hundred acres, make or 
have made for you, a plan of how you can best utilize the whole 
of vour land so as to enable you to run a big business with the 



bule and prevents a rush of cold air entering the room and so 
lowering the temperature. 

One of the details that is frequently overlooked is the ven- 
tilation of the incubator room. It is simply absurd to install 
the room with machines, scientifically designed to supply the 
embryo chicks with pure air when the room is imperfectly con- 
structed, and does not itself contain pure air. In civil engineer- 
ing we have had considerable experience in the ventilation of 
public buildings, and therefore speak understandingly. We 
tell you plainly that it is not enough to have an inlet here and 
an outlet there, and trust to natural ventilation. The poultry- 
man who would put perfect vitality into his chicks can only do 
so by the oxidation of the embryo by a constant supply of pure 




iNCUBfiTOf? f?OOM 



FIG. l-GROUND PLAN OF BROODER HOUSE WITH INCUBATOR ROOM AND "PRO- 
GRESSIVE RUNS" FOR CHICKS UP TO SIX WEEKS OLD 



C7/f 1S,\ 



/?UA/i 



least possible labor. Then build as little or as much as you 
wish, but stick to your plan, and you will ultimately have a com- 
plete plant with every building in the right place. 

As a guide to the beginner, or to the poultryman who finds 
himself all wrong and decides to start over again, as many 
successful poultrymen have had to do, we shall describe and 
illustrate some parts of the plan that we are working upon in 
building up the Utility Poultry Farm. There are of course 
many differences of opinion in the handling of chickens, and there 
are many methods. After thirty years' experience during which 
we have studied and investigated the best methods on both 
sides of the Atlantic, we have adopted these ideas, among 
others, as giving the best results for the money invested. 

INCUBATOR ROOM AND ITS VENTILATION 

The incubator room is of the usual character, sunk into 
the ground to a depth of three feet. This depth of excavation 
is ample in the northern states for up-to-date machines. The 
furnace room for the brooder house is also sunk three feet below 
the corridor floor and the entrance to the incubator room, being 
through this sunken part of the brooder house, acts as a vesti- 



air into the incubator room. This air should contain in its 
bulk about twenty-one parts of oxygen to seventy-nine parts 
of nitrogen; which is essentially common pure air. If we intro- 
duce such air into the incubator, this oxygen of the air passes 
freely through the porous shells of the eggs, and in the more 
developed stages of the embryo, much of the oxygen is con- 
sumed as fuel in supplying the animal heat, and the volume of 
air that leaves the machine contains carbon dioxide in place of 
the oxygen that went in. 

Then again, the lamps of the machines in the act of com- 
bustion consume a quantity of oxygen, which undergoes a similar 
chemical change, and so the atmosphere of the room becomes 
charged with noxious gases, which, to say nothing of the peculiar 
odor of the oil of the lamps, renders the air void of life-giving 
power. We must therefore adopt some definite method of cir- 
culating throughout the room, without drafts, a continuous 
and sufficient supply of fresh pure air. 

TO PREVENT STAGNANT AIR 

With a temperature of sixty degrees in the room and an 
external temperature of forty degrees, two ordinary flues open- 



124 



INCUBATION AND BROODING 



ing two or three feet above the floor level will, if of sufficient 
capacity, maintain a constant change of air; simply because 
there will be twenty degrees of difference in the specific gravity 
of the interior and the exterior. The lighter air, together with 
the diffused impure gases floating therein, would be forced out 
of the room by the pressure of the superior air of the external 
atmosphere. Obviously, then, there is no difficulty in keeping 
the incubator room right in cold weather. The trouble is when 
the external atmosphere registers seventy degrees and the room 
also seventy degrees, there is then no margin of difference in the 
specific gravity, hence the air becomes stagnant. 

To increase the temperature of the room beyond seventy 
degrees would be wrong, because it would reduce the circulating 
power of the ventilating system of the incubators. One of the 
foremost incubator manufacturers puts eighty degrees as the 
maximum temperature in which his machine should work, giv- 
ing the machine twenty-two degrees of working power. While 
an incubator will give fair results under such conditions, we know 
by actual test that it will do very much better when the room 
is kept down to seventy degrees. We therefore lay down what 
will, sooner or later, come to be observed as a general rule, 
namely, that a building erected especially for incubators, shall 



A FRESH AIR BROODER 

Our brooder house, as will be seen by the illustration (Fig 
1), is designed on the "progressive" plan with forty-two pens. 
The chicks are put in at one end, and pass from pen to pen daily, 
and come out at the other end when six weeks old. Let us point 
out wherein we believe many brooder houses are wrong: They 
do not provide sufficient space to enable the chicks to obtain 
proper exercise during bad weather, and they do not provide 
enough fresh air. The chicks are too often coddled and pam- 
pered as if they were exotics, and are kept in a hot house tem- 
perature. Such a system is not well calculated to produce a 
large percentage of healthy chicks. 

We know that chickens have lungs for the purpose of 
breathing in the air to gain its oxygen. These lungs in their 
size, their coatings and their rapidity of respiration are adapted 
to an atmosphere of pure air. If we fail to supply this all our 
efforts in other directions are rendered futile. Fresh air is one 
of nature's most bountiful gifts, and yet untold numbers of 
chickens perish every year for the want of it. We have dem- 
onstrated with the large pipe brooder at South Dartmouth, 
Mass., that "infant mortality" is wholly preventable. Chicks 




FIG. 2-SECTION OF BROODER HOUSE SHOWING CANVAS SHELTER IN SOUTH FRONT AND 
WINDOW NEAR THE PEAK OF THE BROODING SECTION OF THE HOUSE 



be so constructed and ventilated that its variations shall be 
restricted between fifty and seventy degrees. In such a room 
with machines well adjusted, all other conditions being about 
right, incubation will become a mathematical certainty. 

How are we to keep the room down to seventy degrees and 
at the same time constantly change the air? That is the pro- 
blem. There is only one way by which circulation of the air is 
carried out by the natural forces set in play by temperature 
changes without mechanical adjuncts of any sort, and that is, 
to apply artificial heat to the exhaust flue. Increase the tem- 
perature of the exhaust flue to ninety degrees and we have a 
working gravity margin of twenty degrees. 

In our plan this is accomplished without cost and without 
labor. We construct the exhaust flue of metal and lead into, 
and carry up inside of it, the smoke stack of the brooder house 
heater, and so utilize heat that Is usually wasted. During the 
first hatch of the season the heater will not be working. That, 
however, will be early in the season when the external atmos- 
phere is low enough. The end of the hatching season is the 
time when this is needed, and then the brooder will be running 
full blast and the air in that exhaust flue will have a velocity 
equal to the smoke inside of it. By reference to the plan of the 
incubator room, shown in the ground plan, the fresh air duct 
will be seen at the north end of the room, and the exhaust flue 
is over the doorway at the opposite end. 



were taken direct from the incubator and put under hot water 
pipes, without fringed hovers, in boods of fifty. Those chicks 
reached the age of two months — long past the "mortality" 
period — and there was • never a sick chick among them, much 
less a dead one. That, however, is an expensive plant, built 
for a perpetual output of broilers. Ordinarily the pipe system 
is a little risky for baby chicks during the first few days. A 
cheap heater naturally burns low during the night and the tem- 
perature in the brooders necessarily drops just enough to chill 
the youngsters, but not enough to be felt by them after they 
are a week old. 

The brooder house we illustrate is intended only for breed- 
ing stock, to be used from about the middle of March. When 
chicks are not required earlier than the middle of March un- 
doubtedly outdoor brooders produce the hardiest stock; that is 
to say, those that survive all the hardships and perils that 
chicken life is heir to arc perfect specimens of hardiness. We 
want the hardiness of the outdoor brooder chick, but we do ao 
want the accidental losses, and \vc do not want the trouble. 
We, therefore, planned our brooder house with tin's end in view, 
and we have so far demonstrated that we are on the right side. 
We have run a flock of sixty-six chicks and never had a day's 
sickness. Two came to a violent death by eats or rats, while 
all the others are perfect specimens of what six months" chickens 
should be. and the pullets have Keen laying for a month past. 



125 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



To prevent possible disappointment to beginners, we must 
explain that such results are possible only when all the conditions 
of chickenhood are favorable. First the eggs must be from 
stock of sound hereditary constitution; stock must be grown on 
free range, and mated and housed for strong fertility. The 
mist be incubated under natural conditions. That is to 
s.iy. in a machine constantly supplied with fresh, pure air, and 
supplied correctly, so that it does not dry up the life's blood of 
tlic embryo, and then vainly seek to correct the matter by pour- 
ing in water. We have operated most of the standard incuba- 
tors in Europe and America, and we never were able to grow a 
large percentage of chicks until we secured the "no-moisture 
machines." All these conditions have a direct influence upon 
the vitality of the chick, and we want to impress upon the be- 
ginners that it is only when all the conditions are about correct 
that we are immune from disease and death. 

Where our brooder house differs materially from others is 
that we depend entirely upon the internal heat of the brooders — 
nf course, for winter brooding this would not do. It is a cheap 



"PROGRESSIVE BROODING" FROM SIX DAYS TO 
SIX WEEKS 

Method is the great labor-saver in all things, more especi- 
ally in the care of chickens. We believe in a methodical arrange- 
ment of the brooder house, so that the chicks shall have as 
nearly as possible, the exact temperature suitable to their res- 
pective ages, the space most suited for them, and so forth. 
This cannot be done when the pens are all alike. Every think- 
ing man knows that what are suitable accommodations for 
newly hatched chicks, cannot be adequate for fifty six-weeks 
chicks, and if the pen is large enough for the bigger chicks there 
must be a great waste of room for the smaller ones. This is one 
important fact poultrymen have ignored and continue to ignore. 
It is, however, well for beginners to look this straight in the face. 
We have to "fit the accommodation to the growth of the chicks" 
— if we do not another potent factor will step in and promptly 
"fit the chicks to the accommodation." When the incubator 
room and brooder house are apart chicks are often chilled at 
the start by exposure to the cold air while passing from one build- 




A GASOLINE COLONY BROODER AND CHICKS 



single boarded building (Fig, 2), wind-tight on the north, water- 
tight, open on the smith, and fitted with canvas shutters to be 
used in bad weather to keep out snow and rain. The partition 
between the brooder pen and the sheds is of matched boards, 
with a door of similar boards, about two feet wide, leading into 
each shed. Over this partition, between the two roofs, are con- 
tinuous glass sash, hinged at the top, to open outwards, where 
they are held by iron stays. If desired, a "green-house gear" 
could be used, by which all the s:ish would open or close simul- 
taneously. These sash clap onto the outside of the upright 
scantlings, and the roofing material is turned up at the bottom 
inside of the sash, so the question of keeping the wet out is ex- 
tremely simple. When the sash are all open they fit almost 
close together, like one long sash, and will turn the rain and 
keep the building dry whether open or closed. 

Our chicks have the warmth and comfort of the old hen 
when in the brooder, and the freshness and purity of outdoor air 
whether in or out of the brooder. We know by experience that 
contact with fresh air quickens the circulation, invites to exer- 
cise, sharpens the appetite and promotes health. 



ing to the other. Such a chill usually upsets the bowels and the 
chicks are quickly pasted up in the rear and never get a fair 
chance. We avoid the possibility of such a chill by having ou r 
buildings connect. 

While the pipe system is a great labor saver, it is, we think, 
a little too variable for the small chicks. We therefore start 
off with six separate indoor brooders for the little chicks for the 
first six days of their life. During the first day the chicks are 
limited to a space of three by four feet. The second day they 
are permitted to run out to a cross board, giving them two feet 
of the cool shed; this board is extended each day until they 
have the whole of the eight-foot shed. These chicks have no 
mother to guide their baby steps. We must therefore prevent 
them straying too far from the warm brooder until we findthey 
know their way back. The vitality of a flock is often destroyed 
at this point by allowing them to stay out in the cold too long. 

Theoretically we start with a temperature of ninety-five 
degrees and gradually reduce, until at the end of six weeks we 
have dropped to seventy degrees. We say "theoretically" be- 
cause a few degrees either way does not matter. For the first 



126 



INCUBATION AND BROODING 



day or two we do not like to fall below ninety degrees, and we 
do not like at any time to exceed ninety five degrees. On the 
seventh day the chicks are passed on to the pipe system, the first 
pen of which is three feet six inches wide. Day by day they are 
passed forward, each pen increasing one inch in width, giving 



the six-weeks chicks a space of six feet six inches — more than 
double the space they started with. Six days after the first 
hatch another hatch will be ready and the newly hatched chicks 
will be put into the lamp brooders, and so the house is kept 
running just as long as required. 




FIG. i-GROUND PLAN AND SECTIONAL VIEW OF HAMMONTON BROODING HOUSE 



HAMMONTON HOT-WATER PIPE 
SYSTEM BROODING HOUSE 

The accompanying brooder house plans (Figs. 1 and 2), 
show the style of house in use at Hammonton, N. J., and else- 
where. In this style of house the hot-water piping system is 
used, and instead of decreasing the number of chickens in each 
pen as they increase in size, the size of the pen is increased. 

The brooder, as may be seen in Fig. 2, consists of boards 
nailed together with cleats, which rest on four hot-water pipes. 
In the brooder house at Hammonton strips of carpet are sus- 

The pipes should be three inches from the floor for the 



pended from each side of the "brooder," and also between the 
pipes, nailed to the under side, with the fringed edges of caipet 
(double or single), just high enough so the chick can feel it on 
its back, and here is where they like to hover. 

It will be observed that the pens grow larger towards the 
end away from the heater. The first young chicks are placed 
in pens A to G, to be followed by the next new hatch, and these 
earlier chicks are removed to larger pens. This shifting from 
pen to pen goes on until the house is full. The chicks that have 
progressed by successive stages to pens Iv, L and M are fit for 
broilers, and are marketed as fast as they are ready. The chicks 
have grown and need the larger pens to accommodate them. 




FIG. 2-HAMMONTON BROODING HOUSE 
smallest chicks, and from five to seven inches from the floor for 



the largest, having a uniformly upward slant from pen A to pen 
M. The brooder tops are twenty inches wide, and should lie 
ined with paper on the under side. They are movable, each 
brooder top extending the width of the pens only. It is custo- 
mary to enclose a room of suitable size at the entrance of the 



brooder house, where the incubators are kept. The chicks can 
thus be transferred to the brooder without inconvenience. 

These pipes are fed with hot water from a stove or furnace 
located in an excavation at the A end o£ l r k r . 1. Hi.' hot water 
circulates to and fro through a coil of pipes. The brick foun- 
dations are a protection against rats, mink, etc 



127 



CHAPTER EIGHT 

SUCCESSFUL CHICK GROWING 

THE CARE OF GROWING CHICKS 

NECESSITY OF PROPER WEANING OF NATURAL AND ARTIFICIALLY RAISED CHICKS— HOUSING AND 
FEEDING SUGGESTIONS— IMPORTANCE OF SUNSHINE AND FRESH AIR— ANOTHER SYMPOSIUM 




'EANING time is a critical period in the life o. 
small chicks, particularly those which are 
grown by artificial means. It is at this time 
and in the failure to properly lead up to it that 
many beginners make fatal mistakes in care and 
management. 

When brooder chicks are from six to eight 
weeks old depending on the season, the weather, and the develop- 
ment of the chicks, they should be ready to leave the brooder 
for colony coops, except in the case of midwinter chickens which 
of necessity must be kept in buildings warmed by artificial heat. 
Unless chickens are properly handled at weaning time there is 
liable to be a cessation of growth which means loss of time and 
may mean that the chick will fail to develop properly. Stunted 
imperfect chicks and even increased mortality may result from 
errors at this time. If intended for breeders or profitable market 
stock, chicks must be kept growing all the time from the start, 
and there must be no setbacks like "standing still" with no ap- 
parent gain or temporary stops in growth. With a healthy 
normal chick you should be able to almost see it grow, so con- 
tinuous and rapid is the development. 

WEANING HEN-REARED CHICKS 

The weaning of hen-reared chicks is a comparatively simple 
matter. Usually when the little birds are from a month to six 
weeks old the hen mother has already given evidence of her 
desire to leave t hem, and has been laying for some little time. 
As a rule it is best to let the chicks occupy the brood coop or 
house which they have become familiar with, and the hen mother 
may be returned to the laying pens. Keep a plentiful supply 
of dry grain food, grit, charcoal and pure water always before 
them, see that they are safely shut up at night so that they can- 
not be injured by prowling vermin, give them liberal range, 
shelters for protection from sunshine and from stormy weather, 
and they will usually thrive and prosper. If they grow too large 
for their small houses, remove them to a colony coop and there- 
after handle in the same manner as you would brooder chicks. 

GRADUALLY HARDEN THE CHICKS 

Lead up to weaning naturally and gradually. Let the 
change be a constant and almost imperceptible one from the 
start and there will be no trouble at weaning time. Begin, 
when the chicks are a few days old, to air out the hover chamber 
at frequent intervals and expose the under side of the hover to 
direct sunlight. Reduce the heat under the hover very gradu- 
ally, but keep it warm enough to make the chicks comfortable. 
When operating a brooder in cold weather, keep the hover space 
warm enough so the chicks can warm up quickly. If you do 
this and care for the chicks properly, you will seldom find them 
under the hover in the day time. They run in out of the cold 



to warm up a bit and then run out again to scratch in the litter 
or play with their mates. Like all young things, healthy chick 
are playful and get a liberal amount of exercise in this manner. 
If you doubt this, watch a flock of brooder chicks running with 
a bit of wood or other non-edible substance, watch them jump 
about and flap their tiny wings, and race in and out of the brooder 
in the sheer joy of a happy existence. If you keep your eyes- 
open you will cease to be a "doubting Thomas" and find small 
chicks quite as playful as young kittens or other frisky young 
creatures. 

OUTDOOR RUN NECESSARY 

Provide an outdoor run early, it will do them good even in 
winter to have a run outside on every fair day for a little while 
when the sun shines. On days when it is stormy, keep the 
chicks indoors, but supply an abundance of fresh air by opening 
the house windows and by keeping the brooder vents open. 
Never wholly close the ventilators of your brooders. Close, 
dead air will kill more chicks than any other one cause. Fresh 
air is a life giver and a life saver, don't forget this. On windy 
or stormy days it may be necessary to close the vent on the 
windward side, but keep the opposite or lee side vent open. 
Whatever you do, air out the whole brooder daily, if only for a 
few minutes. Don't use a brooder which has a fixed or immov- 
able hover. Sunlight under the hover kills germs and prevents 
sickness. The only way to get sunlight under the hover is to 
remove the hover board or metal and expose its under side and 
the inner side of the felts to sunshine and fresh air. If this is- 
done every time the chicks are fed it will benefit the chicks and 
there will be no danger of chilling them. 

IMPORTANCE OF SUNSHINE AND FRESH AIR| 

As long ago as in 4 lSS9 the Rhode Island State Agricultural 
Experiment Station issued the statement in its Bulletin No. 61 
on the "Mortality of Brooder Chicks," that: "Sunlight is the 
best and cheapest germicide for the tubercle bacillus. We 
found that the simple expedient of removing the hovers and 
setting them out of doors in the full sun all day reduced the 
evidence of tuberculosis in the post-mortem examinations from 
nearly 50 per cent to only 3 per cent." 

If fresh air and sunlight will work this wonderful change 
in a fatal malady like tubercular disease, it certainly can be 
counted on to prevent diseases of a less malignant nature. When 
brooding in cold weather we cannot always keep the hovers out. 
all day. We can remove them for a little sunning and airing 
while feeding the chicks several times a day, and gradually work 
up to keeping them out all day as the chicks become gradually 
hardened, older, stronger and better able to do without artificial 
heat. W r hat ever else you may neglect, do not fail to supply 



128 



SUCCESSFUL CHICK GROWING 



Nature's best tonic and disease preventives, fresh air and sun- 
light (when it is available), in all parts of the brooder. 

We firmly believe that dry feeding is the most satisfactory 
and most successful method of feeding brooder chicks. Dry 
grain chick food of good quality, should be kept always before 
the birds. The brooders should be well Uttered with cut clover 
or chaff and some fine sand. Use sand and chaff half an inch 
deep on the floor beneath the hover. Keep pure beef scraps, 
good quality, green-cured, dry cut clover or alfalfa; granulated 
charcoal; chick-size grit and pure fresh water (with the chill off 
in cold weather) always before the chicks. They will not over- 
eat, and fed in this manner there is no danger of their going 
without food when they need it. In addition to this, chick food 
should also be scattered in the litter. Fresh green food like grain 
sprouts, lettuce, split beets, or apples should be supplied fre- 
quently. Give them a grass run as soon as possible after they 
are a week or ten days old and in any case provide an outdoor 



half the height; the balance of the front should be wire netting 
and provided with a framed hood on which is stretched water- 
proof muslin or close- woven burlap. This hood should he 
hinged at the top to swing outward and held in position by 
wooden ratchets. The hood when closed should cover the whole 
wire front. Provide a large door in the center of the front and 
in the bottom of this make a small opening, for a chick door, 
provided with a slide to close it. The floor of this coop should 
be wood, kept off the ground by one inch cleats. In such a 
colony coop the chcks may be safely kept from weaning time 
until well grown and ready for the larger houses. 

After the chicks have become accustomed te doing without 
artificial heat, place one of these portable colony houses in a 
sheltered position, preferably in an orchard beneath a good 
sized tree, and move the chicks to it in the morning of a pleasant 
day. Place a small wire enclosed run about 6 by 10 feet in front 
of the house and keep the chicks confined for a few days until 



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WHITE WYANDOTTES IX THE SHADE 



run, giving them a chance to use it during the sunny part of every 
fair day. • ■ 

Cared for in this manner the chicks will grow sturdy and 
thrive like hardy weeds; they will be always plump and in good 
condition. 

WEANING TIME 

Gradually reduce the temperature in the brooder unil 75 
to 65 degrees is reached; then on mild nights accustom the 
chicks to going without artificial heat until they are able to do 
without the lamp altogether. When the chicks are from six to 
eight weeks old they should be well feathered and well grown. 
At this time if they have been hardened properly, and gradu- 
ally used to doing without artificial heat, they are ready to be 
transferred to the colony coops. These should be shed roofed 
box coops of about 3 by 6 feet floor capacity; 3 feet high in front 
and 2 feet high in the rear; the roof should lie removable. The 
front should be boarded up at the bottom for a little more than 



they become used to their home. Bed the floor of the house 
with a little sand and an inch or more of chaff, cut straw or 
similar litter. Run this house with the cloth hood closed at 
night at first; as the chicks grow and the weather becomes wann- 
er the hood may be left up on mild nights and finally kept open 
all the time. 

Do not put more than 50 chicks in one flock at weaning 
time, and when they are ten or twelve weeks old thin the flocks 
down to 25 in a colony coop. 

FEEDING CROWING CHICKS 

When the brooder chicks arc four weeks old begin feeding 
a little whole wheat and cracked corn for variety, in addition 
to the chick food. Gradually reduce the amount of chick food 
and increase the quantity of wheal and cracked corn. Hulled 
oats may also be fed if obtainable at a low figure, also kaffir 
corn, large millet, broom-corn or other small hard grains. If 



129 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



possible give the chicks a grass run, if not, keep them well 
supplied with fresh green food, like lawn clippings, clover, 
green cut rye, beets, turnips, etc. 

If the birds are to be marketed, feed cracked corn and beef 
scrap, keeping it constantly before them. In addition, keep 
in one compartment of the food hopper, the following dry ground 
grain mixture: Yellow corn, 50 pounds; heavy oats, 15 pounds; 
hard red wheat, 15 pounds; sound barley, 15 pounds; all ground 
together to flour fineness. Add to this 5 pounds of pure mealed 
clover or alfalfa and thoroughly mix. Feed dry from a food 
hopper. Keep market birds confined in moderate sized runs 
Do not let them range. 

If the chicks are to become breeders or layeis, keep the 
beef scrap and the above meal mixture always before them, but 
allow free or liberal range. Supply a grass range if you can, 
but in any ease allow plenty of fresh green food. Three times 
a day give a liberal feeding of mixed hard grains in about the 
following proportions: 40 pounds sifted cracked com; 30 pounds 
hard red wheat; 20 pounds heavy oats; 1(1 pounds barley; 40 
pounds cracked corn; III pounds clean wheat screenings; 10 
pounds oats (hulled preferred); 10 pounds barley. 

Grit, charcoal and pure water should of course be kept 
always before the birds. 

KEEP QUARTERS CLEAN 

Keep the chicks' quarters clean; if they are confined to 

small runs remove to new runs often, always plowing up and 
disinfecting the old ground from which the chicks were moved. 
Air-slaked lime (il thoroughly slakedi will answer for disinfec- 
tion if a good top dressing of it is given before plowing under. 
It will be well to plan! these old runs to rye or oats to sweeten 
the soil and afford green food for fresh crops of chicks. 

I lie colony houses should be cleaned at least once a week 
and kept, clean, renewing the sand and litter often. In these 
houses use a creolin disinfectant or a good lice paint at frequent 
intervals. Take the roofs off and sun and air the coops often. 
A little hot whitewash applied to the interior in the early morn- 
ing of a bright sunny day, and a thorough drying out after- 
ward, is an excellent means of sweetening the coops. Don't 
let the chicks get lousy. If lice appear use a lice paint on the 
woodwork and a good lice powder on the birds. 

When the chicks are a little more than half grown put 
roosts into the coops for them. If they are healthy, well-fed 
and well-nourished you need not fear crooked breast bones. 
Provide shade and shelter for the birds to run to in hot or stormy 
weather, but don't neglect to make the proper use of Nature's 
best remedies, sunshine and fresh air 

In closing this chapter we present our final symposium of 
the experience of successful poultrymen. The follow-ing ques- 
tions were asked of a large number of prominent breeders who 
are known to be men of experience and who have attained suc- 
cess in poultry keeping: 

Q. 33. How many head of growing stock do you house 
and yard together? 

Q. 34. At what age do you separate the sexes'.' 

Q. 35. Do you find it advisable, later on, to separate 
the cockerels? 

Q. 36. If so, what method do you follow? 

Q. 37. What do you feed growing stock? 

Q. 38. How do you feed growing stock, also how often? 

As in previous symposiums we have numbered these ques- 
tions and the answers, which follow beneath the name of each 
breeder from whom replies were received, each bear a number 
which corresponds with the question asked. 



W. R. GRAVES, Springfield, Mass. 

WHITE WYANDOTTES 

A. 33. From 25 to 50 according to size of place. 

.4. 34. When they are easily distinguished. 

.4. 35. Yes, I do for show birds. 

A. 36. When matured or nearly so have house with large 
coops, and place one bird in house with run and change birds 
every day, not allowing them in coop over three days at a time. 

W. L. DAVIS, WILLOW BROOK FARM, 

Berlin, Conn. 

BREEDER OF S. C. BUFF, BLACK AND WHITE ORPINGTONS 

A. 33. For young stock we house in a yard together at 
the present time about 40 or 50, and as they grow older we cull 
this number down to about 25. 

A. 34. We separate the males from the females at the 
time we hear the young cockerels commence to crow, in fact, 
we allow them to remain together as long as conditons are 
satisfactory and they get along well together but never wait 
for them to commence to try to run each other, but take the 
matter in hand and separate them. 

.4. 35. I think it advisable to separate the cockerels 
just as soon as they show any sgns of trying to run the yard. 

A. 37. Our growing stock is always fed enough, but we 
always try not to overfeed. We keep ground beef scraps in 
front of our growing stock all the time. They never can eat 
too much of this. 

.4. 38. The greatest success in the poultry business is 
to be obtained by prompt, regular feeding, and also giving them 
plenty of good fresh water. I think one of the finest foods in 
the market today is stale bread that has been dried out so that 
it will keep an indefinite time. Take this bread and soak the 
same in a pail of water for an hour, then put it into a small 
cider press, and squeeze out all the water, and you have feed 
as good as anything that I know of. If your baker will give 
you the wheat and graham bread mixed together you have 
something then that the chickens will like and do well upon. 
Buy good beef scraps, and keep it before your chickens all the 
time. They know how much to eat, I find, without telling 
them. If you do not believe this, come to our farm and we 
will show you the results. 



WILBER BROS., Petros, Tennessee 

S. C. WHITE LEGHORN SPECIALISTS 

.4. 33. Twenty-five to 50 according to size, but never 
any more. 

A. 34. As soon as the cockerels begin paying attention 
to pullets, from two to three months of age. 

A. 35. We do, as the older cockerels will run over and 
worry the younger ones and they will not mature into as good 
specimens. Birds of about the same age can be reared together 
but different aged cockerels, also pullets, should be separately 
yarded. 

A. 36. Again, if when we note some cockerels or pullets 
at the age of nearing maturity showing up to be very fine we 
separate them, allowing only two to five in yard. 

.4. 37. After birds reach ten weeks they are colonized 
in lots of 25 to 50 and fed a variety of grain, vegetables twice 
a week finely cut up, often boiled and seasoned, ground beef 
scraps twice weekly, cabbage, sun-flower seed, butter milk once 
a week, the variety being our object in view to give birds growth 
in bone and flesh. 



130 



SUCCESSFUL CHICK GROWING 



A. 38. After birds are ten weeks old and colonized on 
free range with abundance of shade, sunlight, grit, shell and 
water, their three meals are mixed grains well sown broadcast 
in litter and grass, morning, noon and a full feed at night, the 
latter being given them about four o'clock. They will put in a 
good time before roost time and their morning feed meets them 
when coming from night quarters. 



J. H. DOANE, Gouverneur, N. Y. 

PRFEDER OF S. C. BLACK MINORCAS AND WHITE WYANDOTTES 

A. 33. For me, as a fancier, 50 is enough. A market 
poultryman could put 100 together with good results, if well 
removed from neighboring colonies. 

A. 34. Just as soon as the cockerels become troublesome. 

A. 35. Yes,' separate all that do not come up to a high 
standard as soon as possible and give the better ones a chance 
to develop finer. 

A. 36. At this time, I separate the culls for the ax and 
retain only such as bid fair to develop good ones. Cull closely 
should be the watchword of the fancier, and better quality is 
attained in this way only. 

A. 37. Whole grain exclusively with plenty of cracked 
or whole corn. 

A. 38. Scattered in the grass three times daily. 



J. W. PARKS, Altoona, Pa. 

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCK SPECIALIST 

A. 34. When the cockerels get to nagging the pullets. 
A. 35. We very seldom have much trouble with cock- 
erels until winter comes when they must be kept in the houses, 
and even then they get along among themselves all right until a 
nice day comes and we have to let them out, and then the ones 
from different pens sometimes get to mixing things up a little. 
A. 36. We generally take day about leaving them out, 
and in some cases we just run a little temporary fence around 
each coop, leaving the door on the outside. It isn't that they 
find things to eat that we like to leave them out when it is a nice 
day; it is because we like to see them outside where they can 
stretch themselves, as we like to do ourselves after being shut 
in a while. 

A. 37. We feed our young growing stock on range all 
the oats they will eat for breakfast, a little wheat or cracked 
corn for dinner, and for supper all the corn they will eat up 
clean. We keep a hopper of dry mash where they can help 
themselves. We also allow them beef scraps at all times. 

A . 38. We feed our growing stock in front of their coops 
in nice weather, and on bad days throw it in the coop in the 
litter. As we move our coops at least every two weeks and 
sometimes every week we have a clean place to feed them, and 
they do not tramp out the grass in front of coops. We feed 
our growing stock three times a day, and they always have 
access to the dry mash in hoppers. While there are plenty of 
insects in the summer for the growing chicks I very seldom feed 
any beef scraps, and when I do feed them scraps I generally 
make it about one-half wheat bran and place that in hoppers 
before them. For my part I do not care for the young stock 
to get all the scraps that they would eat, as it brings them to 
maturity too soon. We hear too much nowdays in favor of 
early maturity. It can be done and in some cases is all right, 
but it would not be the thing for a breeder like myself to follow, 
as I know a little about it from experience. I would much 
sooner have the pullet for a breeder that did not commence to 
lay until she was six and one-half or seven months old than the 
one that commenced to lay at five months. I have had them 



lay at five months old, and that is something out of the ordi- 
nary for the Barred Rocks, but it was at a sacrifice of size and 
vitality. You take a pullet that is allowed to get her size, that 
is, fill out and get matured before she commences to lay and 
when she gets down to it she is going to make the eggs come, 
as she has the constitution and strength back of it, and at the 
end of two years she will be ahead of her sister that commenced 
to lay six weeks earlier, and she will lay better sized eggs. There 
may be exceptions in this case, and I do not want to be consid- 
ered one that is trying to stop the wheels of progress, but am 
opposed to anything that is detrimental to our favorite and 
profitable breed, the Barred Plymouth Rocks. 



BRADLEY BROS., Lee, Mass. 

RARRED PLYMOUTH ROCK SPECIALISTS 

A. 33. Fifty to 100 according to convenience and range, 
etc. 

A. 34. At about five months old. 

A. 35. Too much trouble and don't do as well as a rule. 
If particularly fine show birds, we separate them in pens for the 
purpose and give a hen or two perhaps. 

A. 37. Same as I feed little chicks. They get all the beef 
scraps and cracked corn they will eat, for they have farm range. 
Mixed grains also; corn one part, cracked corn two parts, wheat 
two parts, barley one part, buckwheat and shells. 

A. 38. Twice a day, or as for fowls. Mash usually at 
noon what they will eat up clean. 



C. H. WELLES, Stratford, Conn. 

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCK SPECIALIST 

A. 33. This depends upon size of house. I don't like to 
have over 25, but most always do as I like about this number. 
A. 34. When I put them in for the winter. 

I do not as a rule, except on my best specimens. 
What I cannot accommodate in small runs I coop. 
Same as I feed little chicks. 
I keep it by them all the time in dry food hoppers. 



FRANK McGRANN, Lancaster, Pa. 

BREEDER OF SINCLE-COMB BLACK MINORCAS. BARRED PLYMOUTH 

ROCKS. WHITE WYANDOTTES AND SINGLE-COMB 

WHITE LEGHORNS 

A. 33. Not more than 50 in a flock. 

A. 34. Just as soon as I am able to distinguish the cock- 
erels from the pullets. 

A. 35. Not unless I take out the best of them and fit 
them for exhibition purposes. 

A. 36. Give the cockerels which I have selected for 
exhibition purposes plenty of house room and free range if 
possible, also feed them specially. 

A. 37. Just the same as breeding stock, only I feed them 
a mash food three times a week. 

.4. 3S. Scatter the grain food on the grass in the yards, 
and feed the mash in a low trough. I feed three times a day. 



W. D. HOLTERMAN. Ft. Wayne. Ind. 

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCK SPECIALIST 

.4. 37. Growing stock get much oats and meat scraps in 
addition to the other srrain foods. 1 prefer hulled or clipped 
oats. The youim cockerels are watched carefully with regard 



A. 


35. 


A. 


36. 


A. 


37. 


A. 


38. 



131 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



to meat scraps, as these are liable to make their combs large and 
beefy. The best thing these birds get is the range of the farm. 
Charcoal is left before them all the time. 

A. 38. Growing stock also receive only dry food. I find 
a feed of three times a day is sufficient. Will try hopper feed- 
ing for these. They have fresh pure water always. 



H. E. BENEDICT, Horseheads, N. Y. 

BUFF PLYMOUTH ROCK SPECIALIST 

A. 33. If yarded, 25 to 50 according to size of yard. If 
free range, let them run in larger flocks, the pullets and cock- 
erels separate. 

A. 34. As soon as they begin to worry the pullets. 

A. 35. Not as a general thing until I put them in winter 
quarters. If they get to fighting put an old cock with them. 

A. 36. According to my circumstances and the condi- 
tion of things I may have to take out some of the smaller ones 
and give them a better chance. If any of them get too lordly, 
take them out. Kill off the culls as soon as you can. 

A. 37. All kinds of dry grain. 

A. 38. Scatter it on the ground (except cracked corn, 
feed that in a trough), if weather is dry; if wet, feed inside in 
litter. After two months three times a dav will do. 



A. B. TODD, Vermillion, Ohio 

S. C. WHITE LEGHORN SPECIALIST 

A. 33. From 40 to 60. 

A. 34. About six to eight weeks, or as soon as they can 
be distinguished. 

A. 35. Yes. 

A. 36. Pick out those having perfect combs, good shape, 
style, etc., and have the others fattened for market. 




A TYPE OF OUTDOOR BROODER WITHOUT RUNWAY 
OR CONFIXING PEN 

A. 37. Cracked grains same as fed growing chicks, also 
a dry mash, hopper fed, with beef scraps and plenty of fresh 
water and grit before them at all times. 

A. 38. I hopper feed all of my growing stock, being care- 
ful to see that hoppers are kept filled at :ill times 



EDW. KNAPP, OF KNAPP BROS., Fabius, N. Y. 

S. C. WHITE LEGHORN SPECIALIST 

A. 33. One hundred to 150. 

.4. 34. We do not think it necessary to separate the 
sexes until the cockerels show their masculinity. 

A. 35. We do; as they develop, we place the best ones 
by themselves. 

A. 36. We watch best birds and if necessary take out the 
unruly ones. 

.4. 37. Our growing stock thrive well on same ration 
fed three times a day as we feed adult stock, just what they 
will pick up clean in a short time. 



H. J. BLANCHARD, Groton, N. Y. 

S. C. WHITE LEGHORN SPECIALIST 

A. 33. One hundred to 150, according to location, size 
of house, age of chicks and amount and character of range. I 
do not approve of yarding young stock when of suitable age to 
run at liberty. 

A. 34. At about four months old. 

A. 35. I do not. 

.4. 37. Wheat and cracked corn, two parts wheat and 
one part corn for whole grain, and a dry mash once a day com- 
posed of corn meal, wheat bran and alfalfa meal with about ten 
per cent high grade beef scrap, thoroughly mixed. 

.4. 38. Whole grains are fed scattered widely on the 
ground twice a day and the dry mash fed in shallow troughs 
once a day, usually in the morning. 



A. & E. TARBOX, Yorkville, 111. 

SILVER LACED WYANDOTTE SPECIALISTS 

A. 33. We house about 50 as a general rule and give 
free range. 

.4. 34. At five or six months, but think it would be 
better at three or four months. 

A. 35. Yes. 

.4. 37. Coarse grains (balanced ration). Beef scraps. 

.4 . 38. We feed the grain foods in litter; feed three times 
a day. 



F. W. RICHARDSON, Hicksville, Ohio 

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS' 

A. 33. Fifty head is the limit. 

A. 34. Four months old. 

A. 35. I separate a few show specimens later. Never 
found it necessary to separate breeding cockerels. 

A. 37. Feed soft food once a day mostly for morning 
feed, composed of corn, oats, barley, equal parts, and soaked 
oats at noon; whole corn at night. 

.4. 38. Wheat in morning, oats at noon, corn at night. 



CHAS. E VASS, Washington, N. J. 

BREEDER OF SINGLE AND ROSE-COMB BUEF ORPINGTONS AND SINGLE- 
COMB WHITE AND BLACK ORPINGTONS 

.4. 33. It's not profitable to allow over 50 or 60 head to 
roam together. 



132 



SUCCESSFUL CHICK GROWING 



A. 34. Just as soon as the males interfere with the 
females. 

A. ■ 35. Not if they house peaceably. 

A. ■ 37. Cracked corn, wheat, barley and beef scraps. 



A. C. HAWKINS, Lancaster, Mass. 

'BREEDER OF WHITE, BUFF AND BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS, 
SILVER. BUFF AND WHITE WYANDOTTES 

A. 33. I have about 40 in each colony coop and give all 
unlimited range. 

A. 34. At five to six months. 

35. I run cockerels in flocks of 50 to 75 with good 
Exhibition specimens should be kept each in a separate 



A. 
success. 
pen. 



A. 37. A mash for first morning feed and a mixed grain 
always before them. Free range. The mixture is cracked conij 
wheat and oats, charcoal and coarse sand or grit always before 
them. 

A. 38. The mash in long troughs, giving plenty of room 
without crowding. The mixed grain in hoppers protected from 
rain. 



W. R. CURTISS & CO., Ransomville, N. Y. 

BREEDERS OF WHITE WYANDOTTES. SINGLE-COMB WHITE LEGHORNS 
AND MAMMOTH PEKIN DUCKS 

A. 33. Put 75 to 100 together; take out cockerels and 
leave the pullets. 

A. 34. As soon as they are fit to sell for broilers or to 
crate-fatten. 

A. 35. Keep pullets and cockerels separate if possible. 

A. 36. Cockerels which we keep to breed we house in 
colony houses on as large a range as possible. 

A. 37. Grain three times a day, mash once a day. Al- 
ternate wheat, corn and oats. 



J. H. IACKSON, Hudson, Mass. 

WHITE WYANDOTTE SPECIALIST 

A. 33. Young stock have free range, do not crowd. 
Feed plenty and often. 

A. 34. Not until cockerels get sexual vigor. When 
raised for breeders like to give them free range for growth. 
Culls penned up and go to market as soon as possible. 



J. C. FISHEL & SON, Hope, Ind. 

WHITE WYANDOTTE SPECIALISTS 

A. 33. About 40 or 50. 
A. 34. When about four months old. 
A. 35. Yes, about five months old. 

A. 37. Soaked food such as oats, wheat and a little 
cracked corn, but mostly oats and wheat. 

A. 38. Hopper feed them with meat scraps added. 



U. R. FISHEL, Hope,. Ind. 

WHITE PLYMOUTH ROCK SPECIALIST 

A. 33. We do not yard growing stock; give them free 
range. 

A. 34. Nine months. 

A. 35. No. 

A. 38. Make them work for all the food except mash. 



Feed twice a day. 



W. B. CANDEE, De Witt, N. Y. 

WHITE WYANDOTTE SPECIALIST 

A. 33. Generally put out about 75 chicks about six weeks 
old in the 6 by 6 colony house. A small yard of netting is put 
around each house for a week, houses 5 or 6 rods apart, then 
this is taken away and as many as S00 or 1000 run on same range. 

A. 34. When about twelve to fourteen weeks old. 

A. 35. I have four pens in separate cockerel house and 
the cockerels are divided in those pens according to size as tkey 
are separated from the range, being careful about this to prevent 
as far as possible their fighting. If one shows fear in the pen 
he is put in a separate coop or with females for a short time to 
get him on his feet again. 

A. 37. In colony houses put dish of grit and charcoal, 
also a hopper containing dry mash and another containing a 
mixture of cracked corn and wheat; about three parts corn to 
two parts wheat. Fill these every morning, and aim to have 
just a little left in them the following morning. Clean earth- 
enware water founts put in as cool a place as possible and large 
enough so they also will have some left on next morning. 



THOMAS F. RIGG, .Iowa Falls, Iowa 

HOUDANS AND WHITE WY-ANDOTTES 

A. 33. About 25. Each colony house has yard 132 by 
132 feet in clover and fruit trees. 

A. 34. Not until cockerels begin to get troublesome. 

A. 35. Yes. 

A. 36. Cockerels for sale as breeders and exhibition stock 
are placed in a grass run removed from the other stock. In the 
fall they are placed in the cockerel house, each one having a 
pen 3 by 6 feet. 

A. 37. Same as I feed chicks. 

A. 38. The mixture of grains as for chicks, kept con- 
stantly before stock in self-feeding hoppers. Mash fed at noon 
daily. 



ROWLAND G. BUFFINTON, Somerset, Mass. 

BREEDER OF BUFF. SILVER PENCILED AND COLUMBIAN WYANDOTTES: 
BUFF AND PARTRIDGE PLYMOUTH ROCKS: BUFF ORPING- 
TONS; RHODE ISLAND REDS; BUFF, BLACK. WHITE 
AND PARTRIDGE COCHIN BANTAMS 

.4. 33. From 40 to 60. 

A. 34. We let them run together until October when the 
pullets are put in the breeding yards. 

A. 35. Yes, we put about 20 in one flock as near one age 
as possible. We never put small males with large ones, they 
continue small. 

-4. 37. Dry mash same as we give the hens and cracked 
corn at noon. 



133 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



ALBERT F. DIKEMAN, So. Peabody, Mass. 

BREEDER OF WHITE WYANDOTTES AND WHITE PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

.4. 33. Depends entirely on size of yard, — at least 50 
square feet to each bird. Not over 100 birds in any one flock. 

A. 34. From eight to twelve weeks according to actions 
of cockerels. 

A . 35. Yes, for show purposes, as some are sure to haze 
the others and this retards growth and breaks flight and tail 
feathers. 

.4. 36. Pen the troublesome ones separately, watch them 
closely; if they appear lonesome and do not eat readily, give them 
three or four old hens that are, later, intended for market. 

A. 37. We use self-feeding hoppers containing a hard 
grain mixture of 50 per cent white wheat, 25 per cent cracked 
corn, and 25 per cent hulled oats. Grit, charcoal good beef 
scraps and fresh clean water. All these available for the stock 
at all times. 

.4 . 38. Same as 37. 



G. W. BROWN, Camden, Arkansas 

WHITE WYANDOTTES, BARRED ROCKS, INDIAN GAMES, BUFF COCHINS, 

LIGHT BRAHMAS. LEGHORNS, PIT GAMES. WILD 

AND BRONZE TURKEYS 

.4. 33. Our breeding pens are 50 by 100 feel and houses 
6 by 8 feet and to each breeding house and yard we run ten 
females and a male. In our colony houses, we have them 10 
by 18 feet, there are 100 birds in each. 

.1. 34. At six to eighl months old we separate all males 

and females, the males running in lame held* I" themselves and 
the females the same. 

A. 35. We find it beel to lei the cockerels run together 
just as long as possible bul often have to put up, (special birds 
causing trouble) exhibition pens and yards for keeping all such, 
and for preparing for the shows. 

A. 36. All birds causing trouble, as explained above, 
are cooped alone in special coops for this purpose. 

A. 37. For growing stock, we use vegetables well cooked 
and seasoned, mixed with a good warm mash of shorts, bran and 
oats, with plenty of cooked meat or green bone. 

A. 38. We feed three to four times daily. 



B. S. HUME, French Village, 111. 

WHITE WYANDOTTE SPECIALIST 

Not over 30 or 40. 
At six months old. 
Not if they get along quietly. 
I farm them out when I can. 

Mostly soaked oats and wheat, some little corn. 
Oats give them bone and muscle and make young stock thrifty. 



N. V. FOGG, Mt. Sterling, Ky. 

BREEDER OF SINGLE COMB WHITE LEOHORNS EXCLUSIVELY 

A. 33. Cockerels are separated from the pullets as soon 
as they can be easily picked out. 

A. 37. My growing stock is fed three times per day with 
the mash at noon. They are fed a feed of mixed grains in the 
morning and at night, composed of wheat, oats and cracked 
corn. At noon their mash is fed and is composed of wheat bran, 
ground oats, beef scraps, corn meal and wheat middlings. I 
also feed green stuff unless my birds are on a nice grassy field. 



.4. 


33. 


A. 


34. 


A. 


35. 


A. 


36. 


A. 


37 



EDW. E. LING, So. Portland. Me. 

WHITE WYANDOTTES 

A. 33. About 20. 

A. 34. About seven to eight weeks old. 
A. 35. Sometimes, if there should be birds that did not 
get their share of the feed. 

A. 36. Put in a pen with smaller cockerels. 



GEO. A. BARROWS, Groton, N. Y. 

S. C. WHITE LEGHORN SPECIALIST 

A. 33. Each colony house will hold about 60 chicks. 
These are not yarded but are given unlimited free range. 

-4. 34. From five to six months. 

A. 35. Only to remove any weak birds from among the 
strong ones. 

A. 37. I feed the growing chicks after four weeks on 
equal parts cracked corn and wheat and keep grit before them 
all the time, and this season I have kept beef scraps before part 
of my chicks all the time with good results. 




A WHITE WYANDOTTE MOTHER AND CHICKS 

A. 3S. It has been my custom to scatter the grain on 
the ground three times per day for my growing chicks, but this 
season I placed food hoppers in three of my colony houses and 
kept them filled with cracked corn, wheat and beef scraps and 
the result was such that I think that I shall use that method 
entirely next season. 

H. H. FIKE, Libertyville, 111. 

WHITE WYANDOTTES 

A. 33. Not over 100 in one colony with unlimited range 
(no yard). 

A. 34. When twelve weeks old. 

A. 35. Yes. 

A. 36. About 25 to a lot. 

A. 37. Same as for little chicks. 



J. L. JEFFERSON, Des Plaines, 111. 

WHITE PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

A. 33. Whatever is left in each brooder, generally about 
35 are housed together. I use no yards to speak of. 
A. 34. Between three and four months. 



134 






SUCCESSFUL CHICK GROWING 



A. 35. March hatched cockerels should be separated 
about the first of November and the best placed each alone, 
that is, if you want to use them for showing, otherwise it would 
make no difference. 

A. 36. Coop each of the best alone after they are taken 
in for the winter, or else coop say about three together in a pen, 
if they seem to agree well. Sometimes they do the best when 
crowded thick in a pen so they have no chance to fight, and this 
is the best way to handle late-hatched cockerels. 

A. 37 and 38. Same as I feed little chicks. 



A. 


34. 


A. 


35. 


A. 


36. 



When about three months old. 
We do. 

We separate them in the winter when they get 
uneasy by distributing among our hens. 

A. 37. Wheat and cracked corn and oats, and be very 
sure not to feed any damaged grain. 
A. 38. Three times per day 



D. F. PALMER & SON, Yorkville, 111. 

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCK SPECIALISTS 

A. 33. We give the growing stock free range. 

A. 34. We don't separate until we house them for the 
winter. 

A. 35. Yes, if you have plenty of room. 



CHARLES G. PAPE, Fort Wayne, Indiana. 



S. C. BLACK MINORCA SPECIALIST 



A. 33. 

A. 34, 
A. 35. 



Twenty-five. 

At five or six months. 

It seems that they spread out in better shape 



(more plump). It certainly saves their plumage. 




FORAGING-CLOSE TO NATURE 



.4. 37. Keep cracked corn and wheat in feeders where 
they can help themselves all the time, so arranged that the old 
ones can't get to it. 



GUS. L. HAINLINE, Lamar, Missouri 

WHITE WYANDOTTES 

Not over 50, prefer 30. 

Five months. 

Have not done so. 

Ground bone or meat scraps occasionally; oats 
and kaffir corn; young stock scattered out over the farm; to 
illustrate, I counted seventeen head following my corn binder 
cutting kaffir corn, a quarter mile from their colony house. 



G. MONROE WOOD, Woodville, N. Y. 

WHITE LECHORN SPECIALIST 

.4. 33. About 100 until nearly six weeks old and then 



A. 


33. 


A. 


34. 


A. 


35. 


A. 


37. 



we give them free range. 



WM. H. ROBINSON, La Fayette, Ind. 

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS AND WHITE WYANDOTTES 

.4. 33. In colony coops from 25 to 100 according to size 
of coop. Never crowd; a vital point and loss 

A. 34. At whatever age they bother the other sex; if 
on large free range can be done quite late. 

.4. 35. Yes, in large grassy yards well cared for. 

.4. 36. Simply in large grass runs, plenty of the best of 
food and pure water. Good management and good judgment 
in housing and roosting. 

A. 37. When reaching more mature age we gradually 
wean them from the small grain, place them in colony coops, 
not crowded, and feed cracked corn and wheat from the hopper, 
with beef scraps also before them. With this anil large free 
farm or orchard range, young stock is bound to grow and mature 
early and strong, hardy and vigorous in even- respect. 

.1. 38. Fed as above with hoppers constantly before them. 
they go and come as they choose. There is no crowding and 
jamming over one another at feeding time. The birds have 
been allowed to balance their own ration, and go and come from 
the fields at their own free will, where they may scratch and 



135 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



hunt for bugs and insects among the berry bushes, orchards, 
etc., to return and take some food from the hopper and quietly 
go to their roost as nature intends they should. 



MRS. H. W. HAND, White Hall, 111. 

WHITE WYANDOTTES 

A. 33. From 25 to 35. 

A. 34. At about twelve or fifteen weeks of age. 

A. 35. When they are about five months old I separate 
them into colonies, each colony as near the same age as possible. 

A. 37. I feed my growing stock plenty of wheat, corn 
and oats, morning and night, and at noon steamed oats or a 
properly balanced mash, with range on a blue-grass field. 

A. 38. The grain is scattered so that they will have to 
hunt for it, and the mash fed in troughs. Do not like to feed 
meat scraps in hoppers to growing stock they get plethoric and 
have liver trouble. 



MRS. CHARLES JONES, Paw Paw, 111. 

BREEDER OF BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS. BUFF COCHINS. 
COLDEN BRONZE TURKEYS 

A. 33. About 500. 

A. 34. They all have the run of the farm. 
A. 35. I separate cockerels when put into winter quarters 
A. 37. Oats and corn, and they have the run of an 
orchard with all the apples they can eat. 
A. 38. Twice a da3'. 



HARMON BRADSHAW, Lebanon, Ind. 

S. C. WHITE LECHORNS 

A. 33. Let them run at large after they come from 
the brooder. 

A. 34. At six to eight months. 

A. 35. Yes. 

A. 36. Have small pens 3 by 3 feet, 5 feet high, one cock- 
erel to a pen. 

A. 37. Same as for breeding stock. 

A. 38. Same. 



C. L. PENCYL, Bloomsburg, Pa. 

BUFF PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

A. 34. As soon as the young cockerels begin to crow 
and bother the pullets. 

A. 35. Yes, I do. I think it better for buff pullets and 
cockerels to be separated until breeding season. 

A. 36. Keep them in runs by themselves until I find sale 
for them. Think they both do better than penning them up 
in exhibition coops separate, and the cockerels won't fight if 
raised up together. 

A. 37. After they are large enough to eat wheat and 
cracked corn, etc., I feed them all they will clean up every time, 
and usually throw it amongst clean litter to keep them on the 
move all the time, and then let them out for green stuff, bugs, 
etc. 

A. 38. I feed mostly all hard food or dry food, and feed 
three times per day. 



MRS. TILLA LEACH, Cheneyville, 111. 

BREEDER OF BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

A. 34. When the cockerels become so troublesome that 
I am obliged to. 

A. 35. Yes, advisable but not possible; am limited as 
to room. 

A. 37. Wheat, cracked corn, etc., scattered and also in 
boxes. At night mash like the older fowls. As soon as new 
corn is ready they have it on the cob. 

A. 38. A light feed of cooked mash at night; aim to keep 
plenty of grain by them during the day, also some beef scraps. 



GEO. H. BIE, Racine, Wis. 

BREEDER OF BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

A. 33. About 30. 

A. 34. At about three months old. 

A. 35. Yes, for all cockerels that I want for exhibition 
purposes or for fine breeders. 

A. 36. I have a number of small pens, very often I place 
two cockerels in the same pen, that is, if I find out that they 
agree together. 



ROSEDALE POULTRY FARM CO., 

Greenwood, Mass. 

WHITE WYANDOTTES EXCLUSIVELY 

A. 33. Forty or 50, or less, determined by size and 
temperament. Free range during fine weather. 

A. 34. At sixteen weeks. 

A. 35. Always. Weed out the fighters and place them 
with birds with whom they agree. 

A. 36. Mate or match up according to their likes and 
dislikes. 

A. 37. Same as for breeding stock. 

A. 38. Same as other stock. Four times a day, meals 
about equally divided. 



BENJ. H. BAKER, Owensboro, Ky. 

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCK SPECIALIST 

A. 34. I do not separate them until well near to maturity 
A. 35. I find it quite advisable later on to separate the 
males. It often saves a good male from being ruined for show- 
ing and as a breeder, as they often would lose a great deal of 
energy from the loss of blood in fighting. 

A. 36. I coop them in coops about 2\ feet by 2 J feet, 
sometimes putting two together if they get along well. I find 
that they develop better and quicker and less subject to accident 
than any other method I know of. 



FRANK D. HAM, Livingstone, N. Y. 



BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCK SPECIALIST 



A. 33. 

A. 34. 

A. 35. 

A. 36. 

pullets. 



Twelve females with one male. 

At five months old. 

Yes. 

Large yards for the cockerels; free range for the 



136 



SUCCESSFUL CHICK GROWING 



A. 37. 
A. 38. 
up clean. 



Corn, wheat and scraps. 

Twice a day morning and night, all they will eat 



W. S. HARRIS, Mansfield, Mass. 

RHODE ISLAND RED SPECIALIST 

A. 33. At times I have 1500. Have had over 5000, 
sometimes more. About 15 to each 100 square feet of yard 
space; all have free grass range. 

A. 34. Three months of age. 

A 35. I prefer to keep them separate until about two 
or three weeks before breeding. 

A. 36. I keep them all together until ready to breed. 
The off-colored or less desirable I market as broilers regardless 
of price, as I want the room for the pullets. 



O. E. SKINNER, Columbus, Kansas 

BREEDER OF BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS. BUFF AND 
PARTRIDGE COCHINS 

A. 33. Seventy-five in a house 8 by 16 until good frying 
size, and then after culling, 40 to 50, not exceeding 50. 



A. 35. Yes, they worry the pullets all the time and do 
not do as well themselves. 

A. 36. We have pens for cockerels entirely away from 
hens or pullets. They keep much more quiet and do much 
better. 



OTTO O. WILD, Benton Harbor, Mich. 



WHITE WYANDOTTE SPECIALIST 



Twenty to 30 in piano boxes on unlimited or- 
Fifty in my breeding houses 10 by 18, unlimited 



34. When ever cockerels show full sexual develop- 



A. 33. 
chard range 
range. 

A 
ment. 

A. 35. Cockerels are yarded together in flocks of 15 to 
20 when taken from general run. They are separated again 
when any evidence of quarreling starts. The fighters go first. 

A. 36. I have a house in which coops '3 by 4 feet are 
ranged along the wall in tiers. Each cockerel gets one of these 
compartments if worthy of such care. Cheaper birds are yarded 
with a vigorous cock who keeps them well in hand. 




A SUCCESSFUL HATCH 



A. 34. I do not separate at all, as I sell breeding stock. 
My male birds are nice this way. Of course I do not get quite 
so many eggs, but the yards are cleaned up by March. 

A. 35. If you separate the sexes you will of necessity 
have to separate the cockerels if you wish to keep their plumage 
nice, as they pull each other to pieces. 

A. 36. When I separate the cockerels I have small pens 
3 by 5 feet in a large building. 

A. 37. Same as for adult stock, using fine ground beef 
meal in mash. 

A. 3S. Mash in troughs. Cracked grains in plenty of 
litter. Feed three times daily. 



J. M. WILLIAMS, No. Adams, Mich. 

SINGLE AND ROSE-COMB BUFF ORPINGTON SPECIALIST 

A. 33. Twenty-five we find do much better than 50 
together. The more we can divide them the better we like it. 



A. 37. Cracked corn, wheat, barley and hulled or clipped 
oats, supplemented by mixed and ground grains. Beef scrap 
or cut bone also. 

A. 38. Dry grains in hoppers. Ground grains and meat 
rations in mash at noon. Being on unlimi ted grass range no 
other green food is supplied during the growing season. 



R. H. CRANDALL, Worth, Mich. 

S. C. AND R. C. WHITE AND BROWN LECHORNS. WHITE WYANDOTTES. 
PEKIN DUCKS, TOULOUSE GEESE AND BRONZE TURKEYS 

A. 33. Place 50 birds in a house and set it on a grass 
range. 

.4. 34. As soon as the cockerels begin to crow or show 
signs of breeding. 

A. 35. We separate the males from the females only in 
breeding season, females do better not to be annoved bv males. 



137 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



W. W. KULP, Pottstown, Pa. 

BREEDER OF SINGLE AND ROSE-COMB WHITE AND BROWN LEG- 
HORNS, WHITE WYANDOTTES, BUFF AND BARRED 
ROCKS, AND PEKIN DUCKS 

A. 33. Twenty-five. 

.4. 34. When well grown. I raise Leghorns and they 
cannot be separated unless they are put in a covered pen and 
this should not be done until they are grown. 

A. 37. Same as the chicks, as they are both growing 
stock. 



F. C. SHEPARD, Toledo, Ohio 

SPECIALTY BREEDER OF BUFF PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

A. 33. I house from 15 to 30 together. They have the 
range of five acres. 

.4. 34. At about when the cockerels begin to crow. 

A. 35. Sometimes late in the season 1 find it advisable 
to put the more vigorous ones by themselves 

.1. 36. Place them in small pens built for that purpose. 

.1. 37 and 38. Same as for breeding and adult stock. 



.4. 36. Sort them and place the smaller ones in separate 
yards, as some always mature faster than others. 

.4. 37. Mixed rations of corn, wheat, millet, kaffir corn, 
ground oats, beef scraps, grit and charcoal. 

.4. 38. Scatter the feed on the ground and in troughs, 
twice daily. 



E. B. THOMPSON, Amenia, N. Y. 

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCK SPECIALIST 

A. 33. About 30 growing chicks to a house. They have 
unlimited range. 

A. 34. Four to six months. 

.4. 35. Yes. 

-4. 37. Cracked corn and wheat, also a mash every day 
including ground oats. The ground oats is a great bone making 
food for growing stock. 

.4. 38. The dry food is fed from hoppers, the mash on 
boards. 



WM. BYWATERS, Camden Point, Mo. 



AUG. D. ARNOLD, Dillsburg, Pa. 

COLUMBIAN WYANDOTTES EXCLUSIVELY 

I. :;::. From •"><> to L60. 

I. 34. When males begin to gel active. 

.1. 'A.'). As scum as they ,u r et to fighting I separate them; 
as lung as they agree I keep them in lots of ten to fifteen. 

.1. 36. I have individual coops 3 feet wide and 4 feet 
\iiun; here they stay until sold or used for breeding 

.1. 37. Coarse cracked corn and wheat mixed with hulled 
oats every few days. Also twice a week plenty of green bone. 

.1. 38. Expect to try dry hopper feeding the coming 
sea son. 



BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCK SPECIALIST 

.1. 33. Free range mostly for young stock. 

A. 34. Usually about 5 months or just as they begin to 
take on their adult plumage. 

.4. 35. Yes, if they are top-notch show birds, but usually 
quite a number will do well together if no pullets are close by. 

.4. 36. If I have very valuable show birds that I am pre- 
paring to show or send to customers for that purpose, I scatter 
them out in my breeding yards. 

A. 38. On free range they do very well on two feeds 
daily. 



GARDNER & DUNNING, Auburn, N. Y. 

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCK SPECIALIST 

.4. 33. About 25. 

.4. 34. At about four or five months. 

A. 35. Only the most valuable ones. Others run in 
flocks of 20 or 25 till sold. 

A. 36. Those intended for exhibition are put in small 
pens before they are old enough to fight and injure themselves 
or be injured by other cockerels. 

.4. 37. Cracked corn, wheat and beef scrap. They have 
free range with clover and insects. Also running water. 

.4. 38. All they will eat up clean three times per day dry. 



A. OBERNDORF, Centralia, Kansas 

BREEDER OF SINGLE-COMB WHITE LEGHORNS ANDjBARRED 
PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

A. 33. Not over 30. 

A. 34. From six to eight weeks'old. 

A. 35. Yes. 



J. C. MACOMBER, Reading, Mass. 

BREEDER OF PARTRIDGE WYANDOTTES AND BARRED 
PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

.4. 33. About 75. 

.4. 34. From two to three months. 

.4. 35. I do. 

.4. 36. If there are a few that grow much faster and are 
larger than the others, I take them out and put them in with 
those of their size. If there are a few that are not growing so 
well as theothers, I take them out, and put them with smaller 
ones or ones of their size. 

A. 37. As soon as we get them off the mash and they 
will eat the grain nicely, we give them as explained for chicks, 
a feed of one part cracked corn, one part hulled oats and one part 
wheat. Beef scrap is fed in hoppers all they want, also charcoal 
and grit until they go into the colony houses. 

A. 38. As they are now on range and in colony houses, 
we feed them the same grain rations as above, all they will eat 
twice a day, at sunrise in the morning and about six o'clock at 
night, or before sunset. Beef scrap is then taken away from 
them, as being on range they find all the bugs, etc., that are 
necessary and which takes the place of the beef scrap. We feed 
them in this manner until October, when we put them in the 
laying houses. 



138 



SUCCESSFUL CHICK GROWING 



F. J. WEHRMEYER, Benton Harbor, Mich. 

WHITE WYANDOTTE SPECIALIST 

A. 33. We aim to never keep more than 25 in one yard, 
and when out in colonies never more than 25. 

A. 34. At about three months. The reason being that 
the little cockerels gobble up too much feed and the little pullet 
chicks get the worst of it. 

A. 35. Yes, for the same reason as above, also annoy- 
ing pullets, and cockerels we notice ought to be fed more libera- 
ally. If, however, you mean separate cockerels (one to a pen) 
no. We allow them to run together, as many as possible, usu- 
ally 25. 

A. 37. Practically the same as breeding stock, making 
sure of plenty and variety. 

A. 38. When indoors, in clean litter with occasional 



A. 38. Make them scratch for all they get except the 
mash which is fed in troughs. 



ARTHUR G. DUSTON, So. Framingham, Mass. 



WHITE WYANDOTTE SPECIALIST 



mature and begin to notice the 



A. 33. Fifty. 

A. 34. As cockerels 
females. 

A. 35. Yes, to make as small lots of them as possible. 
They will fight less and do better. 

A. 36. I use the small colony coops that I grew the chicks 
in, as I find that they do better than in the big houses. 

A. 37. Dry mash, corn, wheat, oats, barley, buckwheat 
and skimmed milk. Grain three times a day. 



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A SILVER WYANDOTTE MOTHER AND BROOD 



mashes in pans. When outdoors, we aim to throw » handful 
of grain under and around most every tree (fruit trees), and 
they benefit the trees by their scratching, etc., having plenty 
range. Always feeding liberally, besides mashes in troughs. 
All feeding usually being but three times daily. 



DR. O. P. BENNETT, Mazon, 111. 



BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCK SPECIALIST 

Not over 60 to 75. 

As soon as cockerels begin to bother pullets. 

When they commence to bother pullets. 

Place them in different runs. 

Principally wheat and ground mash. 



.4. 


33. 


.4. 


34. 


.4. 


35. 


.4. 


36. 


.4. 


37. 



A. 


33. 


A. 


34. 


A. 


35. 


A. 


37. 



C. BRICAULT, M. D. V., Andover, Mass. 

WHITE WYANDOTTE SPECIALIST 

From 40 to 60. 

When three months old. 

No. 

Whole wheat, cracked corn, beef scraps in hoppers, 
then once a day a prepared growing food. 

.4. 3S. Whole grain in hoppers and growing food once 
per day Clean water, and always green grass in unlimited 
quantities. 

ARTHUR G. BOUCK, Frankfort. N. V. 

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS 

.4. 33. From 30 to 50 in each colony house, but give 
them free range, the colony houses being placed in orchard. 



139 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



A. 35. I separate sexes when placing the young stock in 
winter quarters. 

A. 36. I grade each sex as to size, etc., and place those 
of about the same size in each pen. 

A. 37. I feed growing stock three times daily. Mash in 
the morning and cracked corn, oats and barley at noon and 
night, giving them all they will eat. Beef scraps, grit and 
charcoal are hopper fed. 



S. J. McQUILLIANDE, Metuchen, N. J. 

WHITE PLYMOUTH ROCK SPECIALIST 

A. 37. Mostly corn, wheat and oats. 
A. 38. I feed all growing stock with hoppers and use the 
best grain that money will buy. 



A. 35. The most promising exhibition cockerels are sep- 
arated from large flock and are kept in small flocks. 




C. H. WYCKOFF, Aurora, N. Y. 



S. C. WHITE LEGHORN SPECIALIST 



Seventy-five to 100. 

At about 12 weeks of age. 

No, if kept away from the females they are fairly 



A. 33. 

A. 34. 

.4. 35. 

able. 

A. 37 and 38. After chicks are removed to colony houses 
their feed contains less fine cracked and more whole grain; and 
those that have a wide range have the feed where they can go 
to it at any time. 

IRVING F. RICE, Courtland, N. Y. 

S. C. WHITE LEGHORN SPECIALIST 

A. 33. One hundred in each colony house. 
A. 34. About three months old, or when the cockerels 
begin to annoy the pullets. 



A PRIZE WINNING BUCKEYE HEN AND CHICKS 

A. 37. Wheat, corn and oats, and a dry mash where 
they can help themselves at all times; in this dry mash meat is 
mixed. 

A. 38. Only three times a day, scattered in the litter 
except the dry mash which is placed in troughs. 



J. T. THOMPSON, Hope, Ind. 

WHITE PLYMOUTH ROCKS AND MAMMOTH BRONZE TURKEYS 



I never house over 50 birds in one building. 

I separate the sexes when they are about three 



A. 33. 

A. 34. 
months old. 

A. 37. I feed my growing stock, that is, after they get 
to be a couple of months old, the same that I feed my breeding 
stock, with the exception that I feed them more corn than my 
breeders, as I consider corn about the best food for growing stock. 




140 



SECRET OF SUCCESS IN POULTRY CULTURE 



A VENERABLE POULTRYMAN GIVES RESULTS OF FIFTY YEARS' EXPERIENCE IN POULTRY CUL- 
TURE—BELIEVES SECRET LIES IN FEEDING— COMPARES POULTRY, MEAT AND EGGS WITH FOODS 
WHICH PRODUCE THEM— SELLING EGGS BY WEIGHT— ACCEPTS DR. DECHMANN'S THEORY 



I. K. FELCH, Natick, Mass. 




[A lecture delivered April, 1906 by the Sage of Natick before the 
poultry class at the Rhode Island State Experiment Station and reproduc- 
ed here from copy furnished us by Mr. Felch]. 



ADMITTING that the feeding of hens is not all 
there is to poultry culture, yet you, my reader, 
can spend your lifetime studying the subject 
and still leave beneficial discoveries for others 
to make. 

Fowls and eggs are a manufactured pro- 
duct — a pound of flesh or a pound of eggs will be 
found to cost practically the same, no matter what breed we use 
to produce them, when we have found under what conditions 
each separate breed does its best. The Brahma pullets at 
seven to eight pounds and the White Wyandottes at five to 
five and one-half pounds, fed and cared for under like circum- 
stances, will cost the same per pound to produce and the same 
for care and food during the months of their usefulness. The 
breed that lays the greatest number of pounds in eggs will 
cost the most to feed. At the end of their usefulness, say at 
two years, they sell each at the same per pound. It matters 
not that it takes seven months to mature the Brahma and six 
months to mature the Wyandotte, at the grand windup we 
find things evened up. 

SELLING EGGS BY WEIGHT 

Today all eggs are sold by the dozen, but we find 150 Brah- 
ma eggs, 168 Plymouth Rock, 213 Wyandotte and Rhode Island 
Red eggs, as these breeds as flocks lay them, all will weigh the 
same. Now'as all are sold at the same price per dozen we find 
that the Brahmas are suffering under a custom that is protect- 
ing the smaller breeds, and that the Rocks are receiving 11J 
per cent and the Wyandottes 13 per cent per pound more than 
do the Brahmas. 

The only advantage the Brahmas have is in the private 
trade they sometimes enjoy where they receive 50 cents per 
dozen from the wealthy, who often appreciate the difference 
in the size of eggs. Make 1$ pounds (24 ounces) a dozen of 
eggs and you would hear little about differences between the 
cost of keeping of the larger varieties. The present practice 
of selling by number instead of weight takes away all the desire 
or pride of the fancier to produce eggs that are strictly fiist-class. 

CONSTITUENTS OF POULTRY PRODUCTS AND FOODS 

But these conditions can be improved by man. In a single 
lecture we can give only the most generally used rules for feed- 
ing, which have thus far given satisfactory results. It is our 
object to feed that which in its composition is like the elements 
we find in the desired product, to-wit, poultry meat and eggs. 
so that it will produce them in abundance and besides give us 
a fresh, glossy plumage when we are preparing them for ex- 
hibition. 

How to do this is the live question of the hour, and to pre- 
sent the subject so that the young and inexperienced may profit 
by our words is our endeavor at this time. 

Our colleges are doing wonderful work in this din-el ion and 
one does well to study the results of their experiments. But 
thousands do not do this, even those who are employed as 



helpers and caretakers in poultry raising. Yet they will read 
and profit by an essay couched in simple language, and to give 
them this is our object today. 

All analyses show that poultry meat and fresh-laid eggs are 
so nearly alike in their constituent parts that both are produced 
in their greatest abundance by the use of foods of the same 
character, this food being secured by the proper mixing of the 
different grains with vegetable and animal matter. The feed- 
ing of such a balanced food is wise. 

' Discarding small fractions, we find that a fowl is composed 
of water, 51 per cent; ash (bone forming), 3i per cent; protein, 
24 per cent; fat (or heat), 23 per cent. 

In the new-laid eggs we find water, 66 per cent; ash (the 
shell), 12 per cent; protein, Hi per cent; fat, 9 per cent. 

To feed to produce these essentials is our work. We must 
so mix the grain and meat that we shall secure the exact pro- 
portion, and furnish carbohydrates for the warmth and comfort 
of our living factories — for such are our flocks. 

In following out this theory we find by analysis that corn 
has water, 11 per cent; ash (or bone), 1J per cent; protein, S 
per cent; carbohydrates, 67 per cent; fat, better than 4 per cent. 
In peas we have water, 10 per cent; ash, 2J per cent; pro- 
tein, 17 per cent; carbohydrates and fat combined, 53 per cent. 
Mangel wurzels have 87 per cent water; ash, 1J per cent; 
protein, 1J per cent; carbohydrates and fat, 6A per cent. Clover 
and hay has 15 per cent water; ash, 6 per cent; protein, 7 per 
cent; carbohydrates and fat, 38 per cent. 

Sunflowers have water, 8$ per cent; ash, 2A per cent; pro- 
tein, 12 per cent; carbohydrates, 21 per cent; fat, 29 per cent. 
(Too much carbohydrates and fat for an exclusive food). 

Beef scraps have water, 11 per cent; ash, 6 per cent; protein, 
66 per cent; less than h per cent of carbohydrates, but 14 per 
cent of fat. 

In these we find all that we found in poultry meat and eggs, 
besides starch, sugar and gum in the carbohydrates, which 
with the fat gives the necessary heat. 

The sunflower with its 21 per cent of carbohydrates and 
29 per cent of fat, lacks albumen in proportion, which makes 
them desirable as a food for only a short time to secure gloss 
upon the plumage and to fill their skin with fat in our high 
colored specimens, for exhibition purposes. 

Another list is expressed in a different manner: Corn. 11 
per cent water; 11 per cent muscle growing properties; 1* per 
cent bone forming properties; balance, heat and fat. 

Oats, 22 per cent muscle growing; 3 per cent bone forming; 
balance, heat and fat. 

Wheat, 17 per cent muscle growing; hardly one per cent 
bone forming; balance, heat and fat. 

Barley, 20 per cent muscle growing: 2 per cent bone form- 
ing; balance, heat and fat. 

Beans. :>2 per cent muscle forming: hardly 1 per cent bone 
forming; balance, heal and fat. 

When \\e combine l"> pounds of corn, 10 pounds of oats, 15 
pounds of barley and 15 pounds of wheal bran we have a mixed 
meal thai contains 17 per cent of muscle growing properties. 
1} per cent of bone forming properties and the balance is heat 
and fat. When we add to this composition meal, enough beef 
scrap and ground clover, so that tin" mash represents in bulk 



141 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



15 per cent of meat, 25 per cent of vegetable matter and 60 per 
cent of this composition meal we have made a balanced ration, 
which will give the flock no excuse if it fails to produce flesh, 
eggs or a fine plumage. But here is an item worth knowing: 
While we can obtain protein from grain, protein derived from 
milk and meat is much more productive of muscle and early- 
fecundity, and well repaid will be the feeder who is generous 
in the use of meat and fish bi-products, such as beef scraps, 
desiccated flsh and beef blood. Of course fresh raw meat and 
bone must be considered best. Any bi-product that is not clean 
and wholesome is a questionable commodity. Clean feeding 
is as essential for fowls as for the human family. 

ACCEPTS DR. DECHMAXN'S THEORY 

There is something besides the question of muscle growing 
and egg production which is of vital interest to us. 

Recently it lias been claimed that glass, granite, sea shells, 
charcoal and even gravel stones arc all digestible and are really 
food as well as helps to digestion and thai they complete the 




A BUNCH OF THRIFTY BARRED ROCKS 

work of the food in perfecting the plumage and giving it a rich 
gloss. We see a healthy, brilliant plumage only upon a healthy 
body and prolific egg producer. 

The fact that sea shells, charcoal and pounded glass are 
eagerly eaten led me to accept the theory that the grit and 
gravel likewise are digested and have a work to perform in pro- 
ducing a healthy condition in our flocks. Dr. Dechmann is 
right. If the feathers contain glass, do we not have a motive 
for the fowls eating the glass? 

Here is a case in point: I had a flock of cockerels cooped 
for killing. They had everything to eat but charcoal and gravel. 
I commenced to feed these and was astonished at the amount 
they ate and the gain in flesh they made in ten days, after this 
addition to their rations. Fowls when molting should never be 
without food rich in protein (milk and meat), gravel, grit, char- 
coal and pounded glass. 

A PROPERLY BALANCED RATION 

You can see why corn and mangels are a failure in egg pro- 
duction as compared with cereals rich in protein. Excessive 



fat is a foe to vital vigor, and this is why very fat hens lay eggs 
that hatch poorly. A long continued fat condition becomes a 
disease. 

A healthy diet is one that has 17 to 20 per cent muscle 
growing power (such a diet is likewise egg productive) and 
1| to 2 per cent of bone forming power so that the chick may 
be well boned and strong, and that the eggs may be covered 
in a firm, smooth shell. No one can hatch healthy chicks out 
of fat, thin-shelled eggs. 

The foregoing is the result of my past 50 years' experience 
in poultry culture. While it has served me, it will not keep 
you, my reader, to the front in these days of extensive research, 
intense application and keen study of the business. Today in 
almost all businesses we are looking among the bi-products for 
a large portion of our profits. Thus must we be constant in the 
outlook for new forms of foods, new rations and methods of 
care (even to the saving of the feathers) that we may secure the 
very last cent of profit, getting the greatest growth at the lowest 
cost for food consumed. 

The entire nation's increase in wealth is but 3 per cent each 
year where labor secures a fair living. 
This increase gets into so few hands we 
are slow to believe that it is true. But 
true enough it is, that careless manage- 
ment brings failure to any calling. 

This warning means that we are to 
give our best efforts in ability, zeal and 
study, making our calling a second nature, 
so to speak. A competency comes only 
by a strenuous life among our fowls. 

PURE AIR A NECESSITY 

Pure air is just as much a food for 
our flocks as the grain we feed. A hun- 
dred times have I told you that a fowl's 
heart beats 150 times each minute of 
its life. Why? Because it never sweats. 
Respiration is the channel through which 
they expel the waste and impurities that 
perspiration accomplishes for the human 
family. They need seven times the air 
in proportion to weight that does the 
horse or man. Think of this: A ten 
pound hen demands the same amount 
that a child of seventy pounds does. 
Furnish this and the rations I have and 
will describe, with housing that will se- 
cure the temperature of May and September, and you will 
see a corresponding eggproduct. 

It will be folly to furnish excessive heat and expect a pro- 
duct that is largely albumen. For one may as well overfeed 
the furnace that drives the looms and fail to furnish the wool or 
cotton out of which to weave the cloth. 

The hens are as much a factory for the production of eggs 
as the cotton mills are for the production of cloth. Each day 
they must have their exact needs supplied if they are to give 
us the best product of their labor. Her food must be such that 
she can glean from it the 3 8-10 bone forming material, the 21| 
per cent, of protein and suficient carbohydrates to produce 
health. 

How to do this is the question in poultry culture. Poultry- 
culture is no longer a problem of thoroughbreds alone. Even 
those who reed primarily for exhibition purposes have to be- 
come poulterers for fully 50 per cent of their yearly product 

TO PRODUCE DESIRABLE EGGS 

Why do hens lay soft-shell eggs? Why do soft-shell eggs 
hatch poorly? You say the fowls are too fat. The fowls are 



142 



SUCCESSFUL CHICK GROWING 



all right enough. The fault is with you. You are feeding too 
fat-produeing food. In factory language, you are feeding the 
furnace and neglecting to furnish material for the looms — in 
this case the necessary elements fot an egg product. You are 
not feeding protein enough — meat, barley, oats and clover — 
if the birds are confined so that they cannot glean from the fields 
the insects, worms and vegetables they need to manufacture 
meat and plumage and eggs. A healthy plumage is as essen- 
tial for perfect chicks as any part of the body. When those 
overfat hens have had a chance at green cut clover, meat, oats, 
wheat, sea gravel, shells and charcoal at their discretion and are 
made to exercise in open scratching sheds, then the eggs will 
come smooth and firm in shell and hatch you the strong, healthy 
chickens you desire. 

WHAT AND WHEN TO FEED 

Wheat is probably the most perfect food found in a single 
grain. As it is desirabl to feed the meat in the mashes, the bi- 
product of wheat from our best flour mills is probably better 
and cheaper than whole wheat. 

Damaged wheat or grain is poor stuff to buy; good sound 
i heat screenings are far better. Only heavy, first-class oats 
are profitable. None other should be bought. They are per- 
fect bone food, but no single grain can be fed constantly and 
satisfactory results be secured. 

The old saying that a barrel of oats and barrel of buckwheat 
will make a barrel of eggs has, I fear, given a fictitious value 
to buckwheat as a food for fowls. 

As the original saying came from a farmer whose flock had 
a pan of clabbered milk to which to repair at will, and the run 
of a barn stored with clover and millet, I am of the opinion 
that the buckwheat ran away with the reputation that should 
have been given to the milk and clove/ as the balancers of the 
ration that gave the barrel of eggs. The fowls surely had no 
excuse not to lay. 

Few will advise the buying of buckwheat when the mid- 
dlings and bran from good sound wheat can be procured. Corn 
and clover are all we can feed in winter to secure an egg whose 
yolk will produce for us a golden sponge, cake and custard. And 
many families for this reason will pay 50 cents per dozen for 
Brahma eggs the year round when the fowls are thus fed. Oats, 
buckwheat and wheat, without clover, produce eggs that make 
this cake and custard white. It is even well to know the cause 
and effect of color in eggs. 

The vegetables to* be fed are cabbage, green clover (steamed 
when dry), mangels and lettuce. Those that are to be cooked 
for mashes are potatoes, beets, onions, turnips, squashes or 
pumpkins, steamed clover meal, beef scraps and corn meal — a 
good combination for high colored eggs in winter. 

Corn meal and wheat should be mixed with boiled potatoes 
and turnips. These many mashes should only be fed in suffi- 
cient quantities so that they will be eaten up clean in the morn- 
ing. If overdosed the flocks become cloyed and lazy. Give the 
mash as a light breakfast and it will send the fowls to nest where 
its stimulating influence hastens egg delivery. The last meal 
at night should be of mixed grains, and pure water must be given 
morning and evening, for to drink is the last thing a fowl does 
before going to roost. There is no saving in feeding what is 
called cob meal as the cob will not digest. Shell your corn 
before grinding. 

When a breeder is constantly with his flocks, it is probably 
best to feed at four times during the day the quantity which one 
naturally would feed morning and evening. Fowls soon learn 
to come at your call to feed them. I had one feeder whose call 
was a regular war whoop, another used a dinner hell, another 
a small school bell; but each brought all of the flock within 
hearing. Fowls have brains and know how to use them, 



I have no use for a small head, diminutive comb, ear lobes 
or wattles. These head embellishments when generously 
developed are sure signs of procreative vigor in a male. 

FORMULA No. i 

To return to feeding, I present in Formula No. 1 a meal 
made up of 50 pounds of oats; 1 bushel of corn; 1 bushel of 
barley; 2 bushels of wheat bran; 1 bushel of charcoal. 

These are to be well mixed and ground into a fine meal. 
For a light breakfast use as much of this as necessary, add 20 
per cent as much ground beef scraps and scald thoroughly, 
leaving it stand over night. 

If too moist in the morning add wheat bran to secure a 
crumbly mass. If in winter, or if the fowls be yarded away 
from green food, add clover meal to the mixture. Feed dry 
mixed grains at night. 

FORMULA No. 2 

When feeding potatoes or turnips mash them and add equal 
parts of corn meal, wheat bran and beef scraps until it is a crumb- 
ly mass, letting the scraps or desiccated fish, whichever you use, 
be 15 per cent of the bulk. Avoid all wet, soggy mashes. Feed 
dry grains in the scratching shed for balance of the day. If 
you have cabbage or mangels, make the morning mash without 
vegetables and give these raw vegetables for the flock to employ 
themselves with through the day, concluding the day's feeding 
with oats and barley. 

FORMULA No. 3 

In the morning mix hot steamed clover meal 20 per cent, 
meat scrap or desiccated fish, 20 per cent, composite meal (as 
in No. 1), 60 per cent, with sufficient skimmed milk or milk 
whey to make a crumbly mass. Feed mixed grains balance of 
the day in the litter of their shed. 

FORMULA No. 4 

You may live near a creamery, or run a butter farm, so that 
you can secure or have quantities of skimmed milk and butter- 
milk. Heat it to curds, using the whey to mix formula 3. 

For the second day give a light breakfast of mixed grains. 
Then at noon take -equal parts of beef scraps and cheese curds 
well mixed, using enough wheat middlings and corn meal to ab- 
sorb the moisture. For vegetables use cabbage and mangel 
wurzels and feed oats and wheat at night. 

FORMULA No. 5 

Cow peas, oats and wheat bran, equal parts, are to be made 
into a meal. Mix equal parts of this compound with clover 
meal and meat meal. Scald into a hot mash for the morning 
feed. 

Changing these mashes from day to day will supply every 
possible want for egg production. When beans can be purchased 
at one dollar per bushel, they are a cheap ingredient to mix 
with these mashes instead of barley. If you were to feed any 
one of these formulas every day and all day, good as they are. 
your fowls will reject them. Then change is the best policy. 

There is a false idea that salt is injurious to fowls. On the 
other hand, these mashes should In' reasonably seasoned with 
pepper ami salt to make them palatable to yourself Pun'; 
overdose them. 

In all formulas we take it for granted none but first-class 
heavy oats or hulled oats are to be used. 

It is folly to buy damaged or musty grain for fowls. I 
would not take such as a gilt. With reference to oats tor young 
chicks, I would use only hulled or crushed oats. 



143 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



The advocates of feeding dry grain to chicks have much 
to commend them, provided the chicks have perfect liberty to 
roam and the numbers are limited to such a degree that they 
secure sufficient worms and insects for the meat supply and the 
fields furnish the new grass as their vegetable diet. When the 
chickens are raised in large numbers and in limited quarters it 
is folly to use only dry grain if we are to secure the best results. 

CARE OF HENS AND CHICKS 

Many persons tell you not to feed chicks for 24 to 48 hours 
after hatching. This may be good advice for those who hatch 
with incubators and rear the chicks in brooders, but with hens, 
especially the earlier broods, the chicks often are two days in 
hatching. It is well to place before them a saucer of crushed 
crackers and scalded milk over which pulverized shell is scattered, 
BO that the hen and the early chicks may satisfy their hunger. 
This will cause the hen to remain 12 to 24 hours longer on the 
nest and may result in one or more doubtful eggs hatching, 
and a strong lot when she leaves the nest. The hen with her 
brood should be removed to a large box, the bottom of which 
has been overlaid with a gravel sand and fine ground grit covered 
with hay chaff, there to remain a couple of days before being 
taken to the lawn or a field. 

I he first meal in this large box should be a bread made from 

the meal me aed in Formula No. 1. The bread should be 

prepared just as our wives make a corn cake, and baked thor- 
oughly. Crumble it into scalded skimmed milk, squeeze the 
milk out well and give the milk as drink for the first day or two, 
after that in the forenoons for two weeks, giving them pure water 
in the afternoon. 

This bread and milk is the forenoon feed. In the afternoon 
give them mixed dry feed like the standard, or prepare one for 
yourself of 20 pounds of corn, 15 pounds of hulled oats, 10 
pounds of wheat and 2 quarts of charcoal. Crack all as fine 
as canary sand. Sift out the flour and add two quarts of canary 
and millet seed and you will have the best dry food for chicks 
you can possibly buy. Give tin- chicks a free run so they can 
secure worms and young grass blades. When the chicks are 
two weeks old they can be fed as we feed our general flocks. 
Let the little fellows scratch in the hay seed for this dry grain. 
If they are being reared in confined quarters they must have 
a meat ration. Do not forget that the protein from milk and 
meat hastens them to maturity quicker than if they have to 
depend on the protein from grain. Fine gravel grit, sea gravel 
and charcoal in boxes, to take at their option, must be provided. 
Early, before the grass blades have started, sow oats in frames 
and leave them for the chicks to harvest for grain food. This 
is essential to perfect development. If chicks have field liberty, 
I do not believe in meat rations for them till weaned, for it is 
apt to cause too great muscle development in proportion to the 
bone structure. The bone must lie strong and well grown, then 
put on muscle and fat. If you look out for the bone structure, 
you will have no weak, tottering chicks. 

I believe in getting the chicks upon the ground at the earliest 
moment after frost is out of the ground and before the brood 
s ten days old. Before the frost is out the floor of the quarters 
would better be covered three inches deep with a gravel loam, 
and furnish all flocks with outside runs that they may have a 
part of each day in open air. A damp, chilly atmosphere must 
be guarded against. Dry, cold quarters are far better than 
quarters that are damp and very much warmer. 

A lack of bone-forming food with an excess of protein and 
fat-forming grains causes the tottering weakness we too often 
see in flocks and gives us the grown chicks with weak knock- 
knees and weak hips, which we see rising above the back as they 
crouch upon the ground. Hulled oats, wheat with nutritive 
salts and bone meal given when these symptoms appear, will 



soon correct the matter. When green clover is not to be had, 
6team the dry clover and feed it until you can get them out on 
the ground. 

DO NOT FORCE THE CHICKS 

Men tell you they can raise good chickens on cracked corn 
alone. I tell you I can raise better ones on the mixed feed and 
I know these latter will lay earlier in life and produce more eggs 
during life and a larger number annually. It will take some- 
thing more than a dam that has laid 200 eggs a year to make 
sure the second generation will make a like record. These fowls 
that are noted for their personal records have in most cases 
made them by extensive forcing processes. This forcing process 
should never be indulged in when their eggs are being used for 
incubation. They should be kept under normal conditions, 
and then the chances are that their chickens when forced may 
repeat or excel their ancestors. The hen in the best physical 
condition during the breeding season gives us the phenomenal 
chickens both in the exhibition and in the breeding pen. Of 
what we eat are we made. It is a well-known fact that when 
all else fails to agree with an invald, a raw, fresh egg can be 
taken and assimilated as a food by the most sensitive stomach. 
The chronic invalid, the child and the hospital inmate are and 
should be large consumers of eggs. 

If we can demonstrate that by feeding a special ration we 
can produce eggs highly charged with beneficial salts, it will 
give such eggs a great, vital value for the use of such persons 
and any price almost will be cheerfully paid, even 50 cents to 
one dollar a dozen. I believe if we can feed to our mated stock 
10 grains of Dr. Dechmann's nutritive salt to each fowl, together 
with the feed that I have recommended, nearly or quite all 
the eggs will hatch and nearly all chicks can be raised into 
healthy, strong and very prolific stock. 

If we can show this vital force in the egg, surely we should 
be led to follow up the theory in the feeding and rearing of the 
young stock up to mature age, thus giving to the purchaser a 
better, more prolific lot of fowls. 

This is the course the thinking poultryman of the future 
will adopt. What matters it that it adds 10 cents per dozen 
to the cost of the eggs or 30 cents each to the chickens? The 
purchasing public will cheerfully pay a dollar more to secure its 
benefits. 

I will not detain you longer. If I have aroused you so you 
will think of these things, and induced you to enter a strenuous 
life in poultry culture, my mission has been accomplished. 

We often hear jibes at the expense of writers who try to 
tell the novice how to set a hen and how to manage the young 
brood. These critieisers were once novices themselves and 
needed like instructions. Old writers are too prone to forget 
that the world is ever new, that it is only they who are growing 
old. Too many of them think they have nothing to learn. 

The young-old writer is the salvation of the rising genera- 
tion — admitting there is little that is "new under the sun." 
We should remember that all things are new to the young 
poultrymen just starting in the business and they form the 
audiences that should listen attentively to the things that have 
carried the old fanciers successfully through fife. 

MAKING NESTS 

So small (?) a thing as care in making a suitable nest many 
times saves a valuable sitting of eggs. It is the little cares that 
secure success. In the early season if a sod of earth six inches 
thick be fitted into a fifteen-inch square box and a place seven 
by ten inches be hollowed out but left flat at the bottom, and the 
whole warmed to 100 degrees, the eggs also warmed to the same 
degree before the hen has been taken to her new sitting coop, 
in nineteen cases out of twenty she will take kindly to the nest 



144 



SUCCESSFUL CHICK GROWING 



and eggs and not leave it for forty-eight hours. Nor should 
she be disturbed for that length of time, that the germs may 
get a good start, for during the first forty-eight hours more 
germs are killed than during any other period of incubation 
under hens. 

After two days I should gently remove each hen each day 
for fifteen to twenty minutes, until she would come off by her- 
self when her nest was opened for her each morning. If they 
are taught to come off daily they will stay off but a short time 
and if properly fed their bowels seldom become deranged. They 
even take on flesh while incubating. When it can be so arrang- 
ed that the place or room where they are nesting can be at a 
temperature of 45 degrees, then we can hatch in winter as well 
as in spring — if the eggs are gathered before the germs are 
chilled. Oftentimes the eggs are declared infertile when the 
trouble is that they have not been gathered often enough 
through the wintry day to save the germs from chilling. The 
woman who had the best success raising chickens for me never 
allowed the hens to come off the nests by themselves. She 
took them off each day and returned them in fifteen minutes. 
Almost invariably all the eggs had chickens in them and nearly 
all the eggs hatched. She it was who raised for me twenty-two 
Brahmas, in two broods which weighed 53 10-16ths pounds in 
sixty-one days and at 100 days old weighed 107 pounds. 

INDIVIDUAL COOPS 

In any latitude after the middle of April, or at any time 
after the frost is out of the ground, the very best plan is to 
arrange a little coop and yard that is to be occupied by the 




ARRANGEMENT OF NESTS FOR SITTING HENS 

By the use of the arrangement of nests illustrated above one is enabled to readily care for ten 
sitting hens. Fully described by Mr. Felch. 



brood when hatched, and form the nest upon the ground. Fill 
the ground with boiling water, make the nest of chaff and hay 
not over an inch deep and set your hen. The moisture in the 
earth will help to secure a good hatch. If during incubation 
the weather has been very dry, pour water around the nest the 
17th or 18th day — it may save one or more chicks from stick- 
ing in the shell. In case you use this kind of nest, see that the 
hen comes off daily for two or three days after the second day 
and she will form the habit of coming off at a regular time — if 
you are regular in giving her fresh water and feed. 

FOOD FOR SITTING HENS 

Let her food while incubating be principally wheat, with a 
little corn and oats. If set inside a house furnish her a grass 
sod or have the coop so slatted that she can reach through and 
get the grass. I repeat, be sure she has vegetable growth, grit, 
wheat, oats and a little corn while incubating, and see to it that 
she leaves the nest daily for at least fifteen days. 

TEMPERATURE OF BROODING HENS 

The hen that hatches the eggs in twenty-one days will have 
a healthier, hardier brood than the one that hatches in nineteen 



days or that continues the work to the twenty-third or twenty- 
fourth day, which often occurs with sitters of low temperature. 
It is folly to set a hen of low temperature in winter or one of 
high temperature in summer, for both will rot the eggs and give 
you no chicks. In selecting a hen in winter one used to it can 
tell by feeling the lower body if she should be set. If it feels 
bare and hot she is the one you want 'but put no more eggs 
under he than will touch her bare skin. If more eggs are set 
the chances are that in her turning them several will get beyond 
her body, a cold night will freeze the germs and before the three 
weeks are up half the germs will be killed. If care is not taken 
to secure a hen with this proper heat, bad results are often the 
case. How often we hear men say: "I set three hens on eggs from 
the same breeders; two gave me good broods, the other not a 
chick." It is often the case that a hen sticks to th nest and 
apparently bids fair to be a good hatcher, yet she has not heat 
enough even to start the germs. Now suppose you set her with 
several others in similar nests. During the three weeks she 
changes nests with one or more, thus spoiling not only the hatch 
of her own nestful of eggs, but one or more of the others. Or 
she retards the hatch to 24 or 25 days, and several cripples come 
out, with more or less chicks that do not grow up to be average 
specimens of the breed. All this one worthless hen and careless 
owner can accomplish and such poultry keepers are the ones 
loudest in favor of incubator raised chicks. 

Now, my reader, you can save all this trouble by care and 
forethought, by attending to the little things. One may care 
for a dozen incubating hens as easily and in the same time as 
he can for one or two. He may give up a room to ten or twenty 

sitters and arrange a tier of nests like the 

accompanying cut. 

TIER OF NESTS FOR SITTING HENS 

These nests are fifteen inches square, 
fitted with sods the under sides of which 
are scooped out two inches deep for a 
space 9 by 7 inches near the center of 
the sod. The bottom of the scoop should 
be flat. Place the sod, grass side up in 
the nest and press down the portion above 
the excavation. Cover the bottom of the 
nest with tobacco dust and carbolic lime 
and build the nest not over one inch thick 
with soft hay and chaff. To do the work 
most satisfactorily, wait till you have 
ten hens that wish to sit. Warm a few 
dozen china eggs and place the hens upon them. If they 
settle down you are safe to put the warm eggs under them. 
You can care for those hens in fifteen minutes each day 
by gently removing them, closing the door for fifteen minutes, 
then dropping the door which becomes an inclined plane for 
them to walk up into their nests. Those that do not, you 
can forcibly return, and then close the door until the next, 
day. You can care for twenty hens in a few minutes. 
While the hens are off you have time to cleanse the nests 
that have been fouled and to remove any hens that have 
sickened from any cause, but when removed daily few will lie- 
come sick. When these ton birds have hatched their eggs give 
to each eleven chicks until the number of chicks is exhausted 
and reset the hens thus relieved from raising a brood. 

In the foregoing pages I have given tin- feeding formulas 
for feeding young chicks. As fast as you have eleven well 
dried chicks remove a lieu with them to larger boxes that have 
ample hay and chaff in the bottom and feed Iter with cake made 
from our formula. No. 1. It must be baked hard and then 
Crumbled into scalded milk, with the pulverized egg shells. 
She will settle down to her box for twelve -hours or more. 



145 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



By following this plan you will have gathered all the re- 
tarded eggs under the last hen to hatch, which is usually the 
one with the lowest'temperature. Let her be one of the hens 
to take eleven of the chicks to raise for she will be the one least 
liable to set the second time. When the nests have been ren- 
ovated and rebuilt, your quarters will be ready for another set 
of hens. 

PLAN OF YARDING HENS AND CHICKS 

If you have the land, take your horse and plow and upon 
a grass plot strike your parks or yards, 50 by 100 feet in size. 
Along the flat side of the furrow string eight inch wide boards 
and drive stakes (five feet or more in length) so they will come 
six inches above, four feet wide, inch-mesh, wire fencing. Tack 
the lower edge of the wire fencing to the board and the top 
edge to the stakes. When the boards are strung turn the fur- 
rows back. String a strong wire from the tope of the stakes 
to lace tin' fence to between the stakes; this will save half the 
number of stakes. You now have an enclosure proof against 
night prowling vermin that in many places 
decimate our flocks. On the north end it 
is a good plan to build an open shed facing 
tin- yards; the back two feet high and 
the shed roof five feet high in front, the 
roof being large enough to cover four feet 
of grass. Place your chicken coops, five 
in number, ten feet apart. The chick 
coops should be 30 by 30 inches with 12 
inch sides and double roofs, and they 

should be Blatted in front, the palings 
being 3 inches apart. I say lull three 
inches apart just so the hen may be re- 
tained. It is a fact that nine-tenths of 
all crooked backs come from coops being 
too closely slatted. In squeezing through 

the chicks slip their hips — crooked backs and wry tails are the 
results. After the chicks are ten days old the doors can be 
fastened open and the hens have their liberty with the chicks in 
all fair weather. 

WHEN CHICKS GROW OLDER 

When one of the five hens shows a disposition to wean her 
chicks, take all the hens away. When they are six weeks old 
remove all the small coops, leaving the chicks to go to roost 
upon the perch that should run along the rear wall of the shed, 
eighteen inches from the ground. This perch should be put in 
when the shed is made, for the chicks will form the habit of 
roosting there by perching upon it in the day time before they 
are forced to abandon their coops. It is not a bad plan to 
arrange poles along the open yards. Did you ever notice how 



young chicks will appropriate a low board border to a walk. 
It teaches them to roost on an elevated perch, and such chicks 
learn to roost without setting their keel bone flat upon the perch. 
All this will prevent huddling and the vitiating effect that comes 
from it. 

If these chicks are to be confined in these yards, at sixteen 
weeks take all males to new quarters, that is, all such as are 
to be retained for breeding stock and exhibition purposes, kill- 
ing all that are to be sacrificed to the broiler market, leaving the 
twenty-five to thirty pullets to enjoy each yard alone. Now 
for the next two months feed these pullets heavily with formula 
No. 1, with a large proportion of meat. The yards will furnish 
ample growing grass as vegetable for them. As they approach 
fecundity or when the two year old hens have been marketed, 
remove these pullets to their winter quarters, made vacant by 
the killing of the hens. The males sold on the market will have 
paid the expenses of rearing the whole flock to the age when 
the pullets commence to lay. 

Thoroughly rake these vacated yards and top them with 
horse manure after having sowed them down with clover and 



□ □ □ □ ■ □ 



Partial ground plan 
described in detail in the 



QUARTERS FOR HENS AND CHICKS 

of out-door quarters for the accommodation of 20 hens and 220 chicks, as 
accompanying article by Mr. Felch. 



red-top grass. In the early spring clean up the coarse manure. 
The young grass will come with the original sod and you are 
ready by the middle of April for another year's business. 

During all the life of these chicks keep their boxes filled 
with finely cracked oyster shell and charcoal. Of coarse after 
eight weeks of age they can be fed without cracking the corn; 
the oats, wheat and barley can be fed whole and mixed in the 
proportion of an equal part of each. For this dry feed for chicks 
under six weeks old crack all grain to the size of canary seed, 
adding canary and millet seed to the compound as directed in 
the previous pages. 

We have many breeds and are constantly adding new 
breeds and varieties to the list. The Almighty has given us 
brains to govern circumstances, and so we may make our flock 
most productive and profitable, adding alike to our pleasure 
and material welfare. 



4 v t ♦ *s 







146 



CHAPTER NINE 

ROASTERS, BROILERS AND CAPONS 

SOUTH SHORE SOFT ROASTERS 

FAMOUS SOFT MEATED WINTER CHICKENS GROWN ALONG THE SOUTH SHORE OF MASSACHUSETTS 
BAY— FAVORITE VARIETIES— HOW BIRDS ARE GROWN— ONE DEALER MARKETS OVER 250 TONS A YEAR 
IN BOSTON— LIVE POULTRY AT 30 CENTS A POUND SOLD AT GROWERS DOOR— A PROFITABLE INDUSTRY 




I HERE is probably no more profitable branch of 
the poultry industry than that of growing "soft 
roasters" as practiced in the famous "South 
Shore" district but a few miles south of Boston, 
Mass. For the most part the chief producing 
section for this toothsome and expensive poultry 
product is confined mainly to the upper portion 
of Plymouth county, Massachusetts, and includes 
a radius of nearly twenty miles round about the quaint New 
England towns of Hingham, Norwell, Rockland and Hanover. 
This business of soft roaster growing was a comparatively 
new thing less than ten years ago, and to-day is still largely 
confined to a rather limited area on the "South Shore" of Mas- 
sachusetts bay, so that the product is known to marketmen as 
the "South Shore Soft Roaster." 

Boston market is an exceptionally good one for all kinds 
of first quality poultry products and to this fact is due, in part, 
the extraordinary demand for South Shore chickens at prices 
that will seem most remarkable to those readers who are fa- 
miliar with the selling prices of ordinary chickens in this and 
other sections of the country. Practically all of the entire 
output of the ".soft roaster" section of the South Shore is sold 
in the Boston market and it is extremely doubtful if any of 
this exceedingly dainty and luxurious poultry meat finds its 
way outside the confines of the "Old Bay State." 

The producers seldom sell direct to the marketmen, the 
majority of the soft roasters being bought alive by a dealer 
who makes a contract with the grower to raise birds to be sold 
to him when ready for'market. 

$2.50 TO $3.50 EACH FOR LIVE ROASTING CHICKENS AT 
WHOLESALE 

These dealers make regular trips throughout the section 
covering twenty or more miles in a day, collecting such birds 
as are in marketable condition, paying the producers in cash 
for their product according to the live weight and the prevailing 
prices. The demand for South Shore chickens is so great that 
they are seldom quoted in the market reports, the marketmen 
usually engaging the product of the dealer well in advance of 
shipments and the goods have usually a customer waiting for 
them on arrival. High priced private trade, the leading swell 
clubs and the more prominent hotels take the bulk of the out- 
put. 

The well grown soft roasters frequently net the producer 
$2.50 to S3. 50 each at the door of his home when the season is 
at its height. The dealer takes all birds to his home place to 
be killed, dressed and shipped to Boston marketmen, appor- 
tioned according to the orders which he has received for im- 
mediate delivery. The dealer makes all arrangements with the 



marketmen and the producer is saved all the bother and worry 
of killing, dressing, packing, marketing and collecting, and has 
the advantage of disposing of his birds alive for cash, at a hand- 
some profit without even the trouble of catching the birds in 
their pens. It is scarcely any .wonder that in the soft roaster 
district nearly every family having poultry is engaged in this 
profitable branch of the poultry business. 

ONE DEALER MARKETS 250 TONS OF ROASTERS A YEAR 

To give the reader some idea of the magnitude of the soft 
roaster business we cite the fact that one dealer alone ships 
to Boston upwards of 250 tons of this prime grade of dressed 
poultry annually. The writer had the pleasure of assuring 
himself of the truth of this statement by examination of the 
records of shipments, the precise items of which obviously are 
not for publication, since very few business men care to have 
their books opened wide in print for the benefit of the public. 

The Light Brahma is the most propular variety with soft 
roaster growers and undoubtedly two-thirds of the roasting 
chickens produced along the .South Shore are either Light 
Brahmas or Brahma crosses. The White Plymouth Rock is 
however becoming very popular and promises to be heard 
from later. To a limited extent the Barred Rocks are also 
used. The Rocks possess the advantage of rather quicker 
growth and can be made to develop into a finished market bird 
at top weight in a little less time than the Brahma. In hard- 
iness this American variety seems to be the equal of its Asiatic 
relative and the near future will unquestionably find greater 
numbers of the White Rocks on soft roaster farms. The Brah- 
ma has however proved its worth and will be likely to be, for 
many years to come, the leading soft roaster breed. 

UP-TO-DATE INCUBATORS USED FOR HATCHING 

Many roaster growers do not keep any breeding stock and 
buy all their eggs for hatching. Practically all eggs are hatched 
in modern, up-to-date incubators and the chicks are mainly 
reared under hot-water pipes, the "open hover" pipe brooder 
house system or some modification of it being the most popular. 

Where breeding birds are kept the method of housing and 
earing for them varies with the owner, colony breeding houses 
and dry feeding are probably the most in favor, though on some 
plants long laying houses will be found and some feed moist 
mashes. 

There are a number of breeders who make a regular busi- 
ness of producing batching eggs to s -11 to roaster growers and 
this has developed into quite an extensive branch of the poul- 
try business in this section. Such egg men regularly get 50 
cents a dozen tor hatching eggs the year round. 



1-17 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



COLONY PLAN OF HOUSING BREEDERS-HOW THEY ARE FED 

It will suffice to detail the colony plan of housing breedeis. 
The fresh air house promises to become a popular colony house, 
but at present closed colony houses are the rule. In a house 
having about 90 to 100 square feet of floor space are kept from 
30 to 35 females and usually three males. 

These birds are fed a dry grain mixture consisting mainly 
of cracked corn, oats and wheat in varying proportions, but 
averaging about equal parts. Beef scrap, pure water and grit 
are kept before the birds all the time and green food is. fed often 
in winter; chiefly turnips or beets split and nailed up for the 
fowls to i 'irk at. Cabbages are also used as well as cut clover 







% 








t 








v 








$ 






x n 














Htf- 


* 







SOUTH SHORE SOFT ROASTER 

and cut alfalfa. In the warm weather the birds have liberal 

runs on grass land. 

The houses are run practically wide open in mild weather 
and open by day in cold weather. The fresh air house is run 
wide open the year round. Good egg yields are obtained and 
the fertility is much better than the average. For hatching 
the eggs modern hot air incubators are chiefly used. 

THE HATCHING SEASON 

For the Christmas trade the grower of roasting chickens 
begins batching in April and runs well into the summer. Many 



growers hatch chicks the year round, disposing of some as 
broilers, but the quantity of broilers produced is not large in 
comparison to the roaster business. 

Hatching for the regular soft roaster trade begins in earnest 
about the first of August and continues well into cold weather. 

HANDSOME PRICES OBTAINABLE 

The period of best prices for soft roasting chickens is from 
June 1st to July 15th, at which time the "top notch" roaster 
will bring the producer 30 cents, and sometimes more, per 
pound live weight. And consider just one moment that at 
this price the dealer goes to the home of the producer, in most 
cases goes into the coops, catches the birds, weighs them and 
pays cash. The producer's only trouble is to raise the birds 
and put them in market condition. 

The lowest prices prevail between October 1st and Novem- 
ber 1st. when the dealer usually pays from 14 to 17 cents per 
pound live weight. At this time much of the product is "far- 
mer raised," so that the prices for roasters that are not of first 
quality will sometimes fall to 12 to 13 cents per pound alive. 
A good deal of western poultry reaches the Boston market 
at this season and hel] s keep the prices down. 

TIME OF HEAVY SHIPMENTS 

The time of heaviest shipments of soft roasters to Boston 
market is usually between March 1st and August 15th, and 
begins again September 1st. During June and July, when 
soft roasters are netting the producers 30 cents per pound alive, 
the consumer has to pay from 45 to 50 cents per pound at re- 
tail. Out of the difference the dealer and the marketmen have 
to take their profits. 

METHODS OF FEEDING GROWING ROASTERS 

There are nearly as many methods of feeding the growing 
chicks as there are soft roaster growers. Some use moist 
mashes, some combine moist mashes and dry grain food and 
many feed dry grain food exclusively. Almost every grower 
you meet thinks he alone has the only food ration that will 
grow chicks successfully (and perhaps he has — for him). It 
is the same old story we find everywhere in other branches 
of the poultry business, — there are many good rations which 
may all be adapted to suk the needs of the one who uses them; 
the chief essentials being wholesome food, fed in reasonable 
variety. In every case, whether the grower feeds as does his 
neighbor or not, the objective point is the same; all are seeking 
to produce a large, plump, soft meated, yellow fleshed chicken 
grown in the quickest possible time. 

Some of the most successful roaster growers start their 
clucks on dry grain chick food, obtaining the best, ready-mixed 
food of this kind that the market affords. The chick food is 
fed freely and kept always before the chicks. Incentive to ex- 
ercise is supplied by scattering a part of the food in a litter of 
cut clover, mow sweepings or cut alfalfa. Pure water is kept 
always before the chicks. The brooders are kept comfortably 
warm and well aired. Beef scrap or other meat food is fed as 
early as the fourth day and is usually kept before the chicks 
from then on to the time when they are ready for the dealer to 
take to market. Hopper feeding of dry grain is extensively 
practiced. 

NEWLY HATCHED CHICKS ARE CAREFULLY WATCHED 

The first few days the chicks are in the brooders they are 
kept moving by the attendant and prevented from "bunching" 
or huddling in little groups. This is to prevent them from find- 
ing out that they can get warm by so bunching, and to teach 



148 



ROASTERS, BROILERS AND CAPONS 



them that they can only get warm underneath the hovers. 
This plan means a little extra work when the brood is first 
taken from the incubator, but it pays, as the chicks are much 
less likely to huddle outside the hover and become chilled. 

CRACKED YELLOW CORN AND BEEF SCRAPS THE COMMON 
GROWING FOOD 

When the little chicks are three or four weeks old it is com- 
mon practice to begin to wean them from the chick food by 
gradually adding a little cracked yellow corn and small wheat 
to their food, or feeding a mash of yellow corn meal, wheat 
bran, middlings and beef scrap. This is increased gradually 
and the proportion of chick food fed reduced until the chick 
food is stopped altogether. In the same manner less and less 
wheat is fed until the birds get very little but cracked corn 
and beef scrap. Some flocks are grown altogether on cracked 
yellow corn and beef scrap fed from a hopper. 

The amount of freedom given the birds differs with the 
individual breeders. Some allow practically free range, while 
others grow their birds in very cramped and limited quarters. 
It is no uncommon sight to see from 50 to 80 half-grown to 
full-grown birds occupying a yard not over forty feet square 
with a small house about 6 by 9 feet. In such crowded quarters 
the birds apparently do well, but undoubtedly require more 
attention and more careful feeding than those allowed more 
liberal accommodations. 

ALL COCKERELS ARE CAPONIZED 

Both the pullets and cockerels are sold as soft roasters. 
It is customary to caponize all the cockerels as soon as they 
are big enough. Plymouth Rocks are usually ready to caponize 
when they reach from two to three pounds live weight, while 
from three to four pounds is about the right weight for Brahrnas. 

Like all fancy market poultry, soft roasters must be grown 
quickly and should be sold as soon as. they are "ripe." They 
should be plump and soft meated, with breasts well rounded. 
Slips and pullets are sold off first since they are the first to 
go by the ripe age. This is usually when the pullets are from 
four to six months old. Much depends on the birds themselves 
and any evidences of maturity are considered indications for 
marketing. If pullets are permitted to come to laying or other- 
wise "go by" they make a less desirable dressed product and 
lose much of the "soft meatedness" desired. An experienced 
dealer or marketman can tell birds which have "gone by" al- 
most at a glance. For capons the best selling age is usually 
from six to nine months. 

The best selling weights are from eight to ten pounds per 
bird when prices are highest, while at moderate prices the 
larger the roaster the better it will sell, as a rule. 

OVER $4,000 FOR ONE MAN'S OUTPUT ONE SEASON 

As an example of the prices paid to growers by the dealers 
who collect the birds, the following will prove interesting, al- 
though the names are withheld by request. A certain dealer 
has been regularly drawing on a carpenter who lives near the 
town of Rockland, Mass., and who makes a business of grow- 
ing soft roasters. For several weeks in 1905 this dealer paid 
him over S200 a week in cash at the door of his home for live 
soft roasting chickens, and one day in May the dealer took on 
a load of about 150 roasters, for which the carpenter received 
$375 in cold cash. Allowing that the birds averaged ten pounds 
each, and that the live weight price was 25 cents per pound, 



this was an average of S2.50 per bird. Many fanciers who 
advertise extensively would be glad to sell as large an order 
for the same money, particularly as in such a sale there are no 
culls for off color eyes, faulty markings or other fancy points. 
The only essential points are a prime, plump, well rounded, 
yellow skinned carcass; quickly grown, soft meated and of 
good market weight. 

The dealer assured us that this man had at that time over 
S1500 worth of stock visible that was nearly ready to market, 
and said further that by the close of the season beginning Feb- 
ruary 1st and ending July 1st, he would have paid this grower 
between S-1,000 and S4,500 for live chickens. How much of 
this was profit to the grower he could not say, but believed that 
it would be fair to say one-half could be considered profit to 
pay the grower for his labor. This is only one of many cases, 
too numerous to mention in this article. 

HOW THEY ARE DRESSED 

All soft roasters are dry picked. The method of killing is 
to bleed the bird by severing the blood vessels in the throat and 
then sticking it in the brain to paralyze the bird and thus loosen 
the feathers. As shown in the illustration, the picker sits while 
working. All feathers except the stiff quills are saved and 
sorted by the picker while at work dressing the birds. The 
picker has two tubs close at hand and places the white feathers 
in one and the colored ones in another. The featheis are sold 
to bedding manufacturers in the city and net the dealer several 
hundred dollars annually. 

All South Shore soft roasters, whether slips, capons or 
pullets, are dressed clean; all the feathers except the small ones 
on the tips of the wings are removed. Where the birds are to 
be marketed as capons the Philadelphia style of dressing is 
sometimes practiced as shown in the illustration showing South 
Shore capons dressed Philadelphia style. These three pairs of 
capons were most attractive specimens of the Plymouth Rock- 
Brahma cross. The center pair weighed ISA pounds, the pair 
on the right 16 pounds and that on the left 16 pounds. After 
the roasters have been stripped of their featheis, which is quick- 
ly done, they are thrown into a tank of cold water to cool them 
thoroughly and get rid of all animal heat. At the close of the 
day the pickers take the chickens from the tank and hang them 
in carefully sorted pairs from wooden racks, where they are 
left to dry over night. 

In the morning before the expressman arrives for the day's 
shipment the birds are packed in boxes having lids which fasten 
on strong bolts. Clean burlap is the only packing used. The 
weights are carefully ascertained and a record kept of the gross, 
net and tare weights. A copy of this record with a bill for the 
goods accompanies each shipment inside of the box. 

Certainly this branch of the poultry business pays and is 
worthy of careful development in other sections of the country. 
Boston surely has no monopoly on the buyer who will pay high 
prices for fancy chicken meat. There must be others in our 
many large cities who are simply waiting to be educated up to 
what the prime soft roaster really is as a table delicacy so that 
the clamor of their palates will result in a loosening of purse 
strings. 

Something has been done to develop this trade in the 
neighborhood of our large cities other than Boston, but up to 
date there are plenty of opportunities for building up a business 
in new territory and creating a demand. 

Enterprising poultrymen are sure to recognize a good thing 
and help to push it along, and it is to be hoped that there soon 
will be many more soft roaster centers tlfat will rival the famous 
"South Shore" in the production of this desirable table delicacy. 



149 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



SUCCESSFUL BROILER RAISING 

CHOOSING THE BREED — HOW TO FEED AND 
FORCE BROILERS FOR MARKET— EXPERT AD- 
VICE GIVEN IN DETAIL— TWO POUND BROILERS 
AT EIGHT WEEKS OLD— PRACTICAL AD- 
VICE FROM THE SCHOOL OF EXPERIENCE 

ARTHUR G. DUSTON, South Framingham, Mass. 

I believe that many lose courage in raising broilers by not 
obtaining the right stock at the start. At the request of the 
editor I am going to present to the readers some hints on broiler- 
raising as exemplified by me on my farm. 

Many try Brahmas. They might do far worse. Let us 
take the Brahma from the egg and follow it. Mr. Felch says 
Brahmas are superior for this purpose. Yet, in an argument 
with an incubator manufacturer his first and best-proved claim 
is, that they do not hatch as well artificially as eggs from the 
American or Mediterranean classes. Does it pay to put eggs in 
machines that will make the chick cost, on coming into the 
brooder house, 25 to 50 per cent more than others? Once in 
the brooder, Brahmas prove very strong as little chicks, but 
look out for leg-weaknesses, their heavy bodies proving too 
much for small legs. Again, anyone watching chicks raised 
artificially knows that they will attain their height earlier than 
those raised with hens. So a Brahma chick has that against 
it as a broiler, for long legs with feathers on thern hurt a broiler 
in the market. But properly taken care of, Light Brahmas 
will prove fairly satisfactory as broilers. As roasters, which 
subject cannot be even touched on in this article, they are 
choice. 

While the Brahma is under consideration it seems well to 
take up two of the more popular crosses made with them, viz: 
Leghorn on Brahma and Wyandotte on Brahma. Leghorn on 
Brahma have some very good points which are: Yellow skin 
and legs, fairly plump bodies, and they also feather early, but a 
large proportion of the early cockerels will be so near full blood 
Leghorn that they would easily be taken for them by a casual 
observer, and to force them, giving a liberal quantity of meat 
or ground bone, together with the heat, will develop extremely 
large combs, which gives the appearance in a dressed bird of 
its being old — a point against us. Furthermore, the nervous 
temperament of this cross (taken from the Leghorn) keeps them 
from making flesh, where other varieties would take on fat. 
I have run this cross where at fifteen weeks I could not force 
at least twenty-five per cent of them to weigh more than from 
one and one-half to one and three-quarters pounds. 

The Wyandotte-Brahma cross is almost ideal, being hardy, 
low-combed and not getting "stagy" at an early age, as with the 
Leghorn cross; but there is something to the feathered leg that 
is not inviting to the buyer. To see a neat, yellow breasted 
broiler with feathers on the legs and feet will detract from its 
appearance more than one would think unless he has had the very 
fastidious market of Boston to cater to. The carcass of this 
cross is plump and yellow, only a small proportion coming so 
dark as to have black pin-feathers enough to injure the looks. 

To leave the Asiatics, we will touch on the Barred and 
White Plymouth Rocks. The rich yellow legs and bodies of 
these justly popular fowls, the quick growth, with not enougli 
comb to hurt, gives us a broiler hard to beat — one of the worst 
faults being dark pin-feathers in the Barred, which are always 
somewhat objectionable in a broiler, for the reason that they 
are put on the market at an age when it is impossible to get 
them all out. 

I can not go through all the breeds, but will only take up 



those I have honestly tried. This brings me to the last, the 
White Wyandottes. To be frank, I will state that I once thought 
of discarding this breed as not fitted for my business purposes, 
but after "summering and wintering" them I now feel that I 
would drop all other breeds before I would the reliable White 
Wyandottes. 

Let us note their faults. The first is that in some birds, 
more especially those bred for extreme whiteness, you will find 
they are not yellow-meated. At the same time I have seen 
the whitest plumage birds have rich, yellow skin, beak and legs. 
In buying stock look for yellow beak, and as yellow a leg as you 
could naturally expect at the time of year you are buying; that 
is, make allowance for a bird hived up in a yard, with sand to 
dust in, as it will surely bleach the legs to a flesh color. 

Another trouble you may have with the Wyandotte, aa 
perhaps you would have with no other breed, is, when confining 
a large number in a small pen they easily take up feather-pulling. 
I think this is due to the peculiar way in which they feather. 
Some will grow to weigh one and one-half pounds before they 
have any but neck and wing feathers. Then the pin-feathers 
start all at once, making the habit easily formed by the "chicken 
act" of striking one another, or picking off any soft food that 
may adhere to the feathers. But plenty of green food will 
obviate that to a great extent, especially should that food be 
freshly cut clover. Of course it can not be obtained in winter, 
but well-cured clover rowen can. With care after this warning 
you need have no trouble in this direction. 

Regarding white skin, I will tell you how to overcome that 
by the use of the right kind of food, making it yellow enough 
to suit anyone. Now that we have seen the faults of the White 
Wyandottes in their worst light, let me extol their virtues as 
broilers, for they have many. 

The eggs being reasonably thin shelled hatch as well as any 
you can get. They mature as laying pullets a full month earlier 
than Plymouth Rocks, thus giving you eggs for early hatching. 
Their clean, yellow legs, low combs, white pin-feathers, and quick 
growing qualities, render them the best broilers I can put out. 

I have sold hundreds to dress eight ounces (one-half pound) 
and they were as round as a "butter ball," this being one of 
their most important merits, that when properly fed they are 
at all times ready for market. 

They will stand all the forcing any chick can. If you try 
to raise Rocks and Wyandottes in the same pen, the experiment 
will prove to you this fact. Your Rocks will go "off their legs," 
while the deep-breasted, plump-bodied, smooth-skinned, active 
little Wyandottes will take their medicine five times a day and 
stand as straight as matches. Remember, it is generally the 
bird that can stand the greatest amount of food that makes the 
quickest grown broiler, and must be the bird you should adopt, 
as every additional day means additional cost from labor, coal 
and feed. 

I have written this article from the market point of 
view, that is, the sales-counter, as that is where our returns for 
broilers come from. Now, for one moment let us look at the 
matter as epicures. Take any one of the varieties mentioned 
above, and the Wyandotte, besides having the extra flesh on 
breast, as I stated before, caused by the great depth of breast- 
bone, is as juicy and delicious as any, and, in the opinion of 
"our folks," more so, a dish luscious enough for a king. 

This is just my experience briefly set before you. If I have 
written anything that will in any way aid my brother poultry- 
men, I am satisfied. Do not be in hurry to cross your stock, 
as no one can make me believe again that there is anything 
gained by crossing, for there is no place that a thoroughbred of 
some variety will not fill the bill, and once you start to cross 
where can you stop? The labor and skill of years come to naught 
when you destroy the integrity of a breed or strain by crossing 



150 



ROASTERS, BROILERS AND CAPONS 



STARTING THE CHICKS 

We will say that we have decided on the variety that we 
will run; our eggs are as fresh as possible and of uniform size; 
we have put them into a well made incubator and with proper 
care have gotten out a good hatch, which came along promptly, 
so that the morning of the twenty-second day we find the chicks 
nicely dried off. We now get our warmed, cloth-lined basket, 
with a heavy cover or shawl to prevent them getting chilled. 
Right here I want to say, I believe more chicks "pass out," 
to the land whence no wanderer returns, from getting chilled in 
moving them from a warm, moist incubator on a cold day into 
the brooder than most folks are aware of, and those little fel- 
lows you had such fond hopes of, but lost last winter with what 
you called bowel trouble or diarrhoea, were really chilled in 
being changed from their birthplace to their temporary home. 
Well, we have got them safely, we hope, into the brooder, 
which has been brought up to the temperature of the incubator. 
Of course we have placed our board in slides about a foot away 
from and in front of the hover, so that the babies can not get 
out in the long pen and not be able to find the way back and 
thus get chilled. Just bear in mind for the first week that to • 
keep them warm is more essential than the kind of food. 

The first day of their lives in a brooder has almost passed 
and they have not eaten anything. Night has begun to come 
on and it is time to feed the hens, but let us first scatter down 
for the chicks a liberal supply of rolled oats, the white flakes of 
which will instantly attract them, and they are left to themselves. 
In the evening, as we fix the fire preparatory to locking up for 
the night, we look at them and are pleased to find them scattered 
all over the hover bottom, and their contented little "peep" is 
the last sound to fill our ears as we go out, and our mind is 
already filled with visions of juicy broilers and big breasted 
roasters and the perquisites thereunto attached. 

The next morning as we turn out at daylight to see our 
orphans we find them calling for breakfast. We touch up the 
fire and then a feed of rolled oats is given them with a dish of 
warmed skimmed milk. We use an old fruit can for this pur- 
pose with a notch cut in the edge. Partially filled with the milk 
and inverted into a saucer, this makes an elegant fountain for 
small chicks. A saucer not much larger than the can is best, 
then the chicks will not get "stuck up." The milk on the down 
will stick them together as bad as paste would. Some of the 
little fellows that would not eat will drink, so you save them 
along until they will eat. That you will save more chicks by 
giving them warmed skimmed milk than by any system of 
feeding grain, is my way of thinking. 

We next powder some charcoal in a dry bone or shell mill, 
and this is put into a dish and set in for the chicks to eat. We 
have found this an excellent regulator for very young chicks, 
as well as older birds. We are now going to feed every two 
hours until our young charges are turned over to the butcher. 
Let it be done by the clock; you will then be more regular and 
can more easily even up the day. 

THE FIRST WEEK 

For the first week you are limited to rolled oats, millet 
seed (which is a semi-green food) and cracked corn, run through 
a mill to make it fine enough, then sifted to save the meal, which, 
of course, is wasted by throwing it on the ground. We have kept 
our milk before them all the time, and have carefully washed 
the dishes twice a day, noon and night, as nothing gets any more 
filthy than do these dishes if left uncleaned, the fat of the milk, 
dirt and droppings all adding their mite to make it so, more 
especially as the chicks get older. Some think skimmed milk 
expensive to feed, but after trying it you will be convinced that 
the increased growth that comes from feeding it gives you a 



good profit on it, and this is what we should always think of 
when weighing the cost of food. The real question is, can I get 
enough quicker growth by using it and give me a profit on it? 
For feeding choice "fancy" chicks I have heard it contended 
that whole milk was cheap to feed. I have been able to buy 
all the skimmed milk I want for five cents a can, eight and one- 
half quarts to a can, and have used as high as twenty-six cans 
a day for broilers and roasters. 

As we have put into each hover not over fifty chicks, we 
must see that the sand is carefully scraped off the top as often 
as necessary, probably twice the first week, which will be in- 
creased each week until about the third, then we begin to clean 
them regularly every morning. We run the wheelbarrow into 
the walk and lift the hover, which is hinged against the parti- 
tion so it is easy to get at. We take a small dust pan, or, if 
you prefer, make a scraper, by driving nails through a stick, 
something like a rake only closer together. Then scrape or 
rake the top off, going quickly from one to another. 

THE SECOND WEEK 

For the first week we keep the board in the slides just 
forward of the hover, as stated before. Now the second week 
we will remove it and keep an eye on the chicks to see that they 
do not get lost or get chilled by staying away from the heat too 
long. For this week we will feed about the same, only perhaps 
it will be well to try them on a little mash made up of one-third 
corn meal and two-thirds wheat bran, seasoned with salt and 
pepper, just the same as though we were to eat it ourselves. 
Mix well and add boiling water. Don't put in enough to make 
it sloppy. Allow it to stand a short time, then feed. Not much 
will be eaten, but they will get so before the end of the week 
they will look for it, as you feed your soft and hard grains al- 
ternately. 

During the second week we have cracked some wheat in 
our mill, so have had that for an extra dish and a change, giving 
corn as a last feed generally. A good many feed cut or pinhead 
oat meal to little chicks. This we have found to be a trifle 
pasty or gummy, and have dropped it, as more will get stuck 
up around the vent when this is fed than when not. 

There is one thing that is absolutely imperative — that is, 
to get your chicks out on the ground. If it is bright and warm 
put them out for a few minutes when a week old. Do not let 
them stand "humped" up and shiver, but make them hustle 
around, by driving or by feeding a handful of millet seed. After 
the second week they must go out every day unless it storms, 
no matter if it is zero weather. After you have tried it you will 
see how essential it is, for you can not keep them on their legs 
under such high feed in any other way. 

THE THIRD WEEK 

The third week we always settle down to our regular routine, 
to be continued until about ready to market. As we enter upon 
the duties of the third week we will now get our routine started 
and will see the chicks push along for the next five weeks, at 
which time we hope to see two-pound birds ready for the market, 
and get sight of the returns for our labor. The first thing in 
the morning is a feed of hard grain; then comes a feed of chopped 
raw potatoes. As the chopping knife and tray were too slow, 
we got a mince meat chopper, had a new disc made with larger 
holes, about three-eighths of an inch in diameter, and ran the 
potatoes through that, catching in a pan the first and last to 
come out as it is nothing but water. The other is the pulp. 
Now take their feed dish and give each pen all they will oat. 
A little later we throw in a little cabbage, cut in strips, which 
they will seize and chase each other around for until it is all 
eaten. 



151 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



This constitutes all the green food they have, except once 
in a while we may substitute onions in place of cabbage. We 
have gotten our mash made for the day, and as 9 o'clock has come 
we will feed our first feed of it for the day, only feeding what 
they will eat quickly. We feed on tin plates, about fourteen 
inches in diameter and a quarter of an inch deep with a wide 
fold at the top. These can be readly cleaned preparatory to 
another feed by scraping with the feeding shovel, which is a 
small shovel about four inches across, made of heavy sheet iron 
and a white iron handle. We have a pan to put the leavings 
in, if any. They go into the swill for the pigs. At 11 o'clock 
another mash, then the dishes are picked up, taken into the 
kitchen or cook room and washed. 

Again at 1 anil 3 o'clock we feed the mash and if we have 
used good judgment we have had a hungry mob each feeding. 
If we have been liberal, we find they have left something each 
time and are not ready for their feed. When this is so just 
scant them until they clean up each time and do it quickly, 
taking care you have enough for all. You will find the number 
of plates will have to be increased, as the chicks increase in size, 
in order that each may have a chance. At 5 o'clock or before 
dark throw down a liberal feed of cracked corn. 

\\ e follow this bill of fare for about four weeks. As we 
have crowded the chicks pretty well, by putting one hundred ina 
pen we must take extra precautions against filth. At about four 
weeks of age a day's droppings is considerable on the floor of 
the pen so the floor is now raked over each day and the collections 
wheeled out. For this we must use a loop toothed rake. 

We have by this time found our fountains small and easily 
tipped over by the chicks, so we have adopted new ones hold- 
ing nearly two quarts, made of galvanized iron and cone shaped 
on top, to keep the youngsteis from roosting on them, ami in- 
stead of the saucer we use a small deep agate pan, only a trifle 
larger than the fount. This we find to be very satisfactory as 
the chicks can not put their feet in it. 

FINISHING OFF THE CHICKS 

To come back to the six to eight weeks old chicks. We 
must now think of finishing them off. We examine them, 
weigh a few, calculate how much flesh can be made on them in 
about ten days, for as broilers Boston has no use for anything 
over four pounds to a pair. We have fed so much bran that. 
as we lay back the feathers on the breast we say, "They ought 
to have more color." How can we get it? We cast about for 
a way to get this. We know corn will do it, but we lose time if 
we drop off from soft feed to hard. The chicks won't grow as 
fast and we must turn them off as soon as possible to get the 
most profit from them. So we put into the mash all the cotton 
seed meal we can stir in and not make it "salvy" or "puddingy," 
as we call it. With a little treacle added we have accomplished 
the result. 

We now have a fine yellow skin if we have not foolishly 
chosen a blue blooded carcass, but any yellow-legged variety 
will respond to the treatment. I would caution you against 
trying to feed this for too long a time, say more than two weeks, 
as the chicks will get cloyed by it, and you cannot hold their 
flesh, to say nothing of making any unless you keep their appe- 
tites "up to the clip." This being such a high feed, it seems 
to become nauseous to them. One would find it difficult to keep 
them on their legs if it were fed from the first. We have now 
"forced" the birds for eight weeks and have obtained what we 
set out for, viz: Two-pound broilers at eight weeks. 

This has been successfully accomplished on our farm with 
White Wyandottes. We have not done quite as well with any 
other variety. They will stand on their legs where Plymouth 
Rocks would be rolling on their sides with the same feed. 

We put up two pens of 110 each, and at eight weeks they 



weighed two pounds each, and a portion two and one-quarter 
pounds each under this system of feeding and almost the same 
treatment. By continuing the regular feed we have made five 
and five-eighths pound roasters at fifteen weeks old. 

SHIPPING LIVE CHICKS TO MARKET 

One thing more before closing: If you ship poultry to 
market alive, and it travels twenty to thirty miles on the rail- 
road, feed the night before, not too heavy but some, as the 
birds will empty themselves in the night and on the journey, 
(live them all the water they will drink before they start on their 
funeral ride. You will thus save a portion of your shrinkage 
to nobody's injury, but to their gain, I believe, as you help 
retain the juiciness of the flesh. 

Some of these hints have been gained in the expensive 
school of experience, but if any earnest, honest poultryman can 
get anything of assistance from them he is welcome. As one 
word of caution, do not attempt to raise your breeding females 
under such hot-house methods, because you will sacrifice your 
size through early maturity, as after a period of forcing as given 
. above it is no uncommon thing for pullets to lay at sixteen weeks, 
and we all know that is enough to stop growth. You may 
start your breeders in the brooder, holding off forcing foods, 
but get them out as quickly as possible. 

The summing up of the discussion is, breed, feed and care. 
Let us not disdain to use the breed because it may be bred to 
"fancy points." as the fancy has given us our best and most 
practical varieties, and the nearer a typical bird he have, of 
almost any breed, the better carcass we have. 



THE ECONOMY OF CAPONS 

AN ENGLISH POULTRY FARM WITHOUT FENCES 
WHERE ALL THE COCKERELS ARE CAPONIZ- 
ED— THE CAPONS BEING A GOOD PROFIT 
WITH THE SMALLEST AMOUNT OF OUTLAY 

FRANKLANE L. SEWELL, Artist 

Aside from the small runs connected with the long brood- 
ing house and a few yards for the favorite breeding birds, fences 
were quite needless, as all the cockeiels for market stock were 
caponized, thus doing away with the need of separating the 
sexes. This is immediately recognized as a great economy. 
The farm was a large one mostly worked for hay and grain. 
The land not the richest, would hardly pay the 80 pounds 
(nearly $400) per year rent from the product of its hay and 
grain. The poultry added considerably to the income of the 
tenant who had made poultry quite a study in America as well 
as in England, having been a student at Kingston, Rhode 
Island. 

THE MOVABLE BREEDING PENS 

The farm being devoted to hay and grain gave ample room 
for portable houses. Our visit was in haying time and the long 
swaths stretched out over the wide meadows on which quite a 
number of movable breeding pens were arranged. Those in 
the picture at the lower left hand are the shape favored on the 
place. They are of five-eighth inch tongued-and-grooved boards. 
Three by 6 feet on ground measurement and 4 feet high to the 
peak; three feet at sides with sliding door at center of long side. 
They are very simple but answer the purpose well. A small 
door at the end assists in gathering the eggs and the handles 
at each corner makes frequent moving about quite a simple 



152 



ROASTERS, BROILERS AND CAPONS 



matter. The yard 6 by 12 feet and 3 feet high is a light wooden 
frame. On top of each yard we noticed a large fork full of hay 
had been spread for shade and to the north side was attached 
burlap to shelter the fowls from the wind, which we were told 
is quite severe in cold seasons. As soon as the hay lands are 
raked clean of their crop, these houses will be used for young 
stock in the autumn and moved every day or two. The con- 
stant changing to new ground and forage benefits the birds and 
greatly adds to the productiveness of the ground, and we can 
safely assert from our own and others' experience, that with 



good as should be, but it was found that when chalk was placed 
in the water fountains, the water was sweetend, and they were 
sure the fowls kept in better condition. We have seen a small 
proportion of slaked lime also used with beneficial results, 
especially in the summer weather when the fowls are apt to 
have bowel trouble. 

The poultry kept here was chiefly for market, and the 
White Plymouth Rocks and White Wyandottes used as breed- 
ing stock. An experimental cross that was expected to prove 
quite satisfactory, was that from a white Old English White 




The position of the fowl on the 
caponizing easel 
The small movable breeding pens that are "favored on the place" 



AN ENGLISH FARM WHICH MAKES A SPECIALTY OF CAPONS 

A few of the Rock of 200 ducks The operation of caponizing 

The long brooder house 



extensive poultry growing over these 
their yield of hay. 

One ton of hay to the acre was 
few yeais ago at t His farm, upon Gori 
hills, but we were assured that the land 
by allowing the poultry to range mi it. 
ence that a New England Poultry V 
hay crops have more than doubled in 
tensive poultry keeping on the Land. 

The wells on this farm were mil 



fields, they would double 

considered ! fan- • rop a 
ng Heath over the chalk- 
had been much improved 

I his is the same experi- 
arm reported, only their 
the last ten years ol ex- 

as deep, nur the water as 



Legged (.lame cock with White Wyandotte females, They will 
make medium sized birds — the kind (ranted "ii the London 
market -that will biing what will amount to about one shilling 
per pound, and they will have white skin, white feathers, and 

white flesh. In tin' early si-ism the higglers, (or butchers 
will give about the same price for a bird of three or four pounds 

weight as for one larger that would take longer and more ex- 
pense 10 iv. 11. so of coins' the one cheapest to rear to that size 
is the beat for the grower. In this neighborhood they tell the 
tenderness of young fowls by the suppleness of their wings 



168 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



I be breast bone test is considered the best. In Leadenhall you 
will hear the poultryman say "its breast bone is as soft as glue." 

During the summer the young stock is being sold principally 
to the butcher in the nearby town and he is giving quite as 
much or more than could be obtained by sending them to London. 

We "were surprised at the thin walls of the incubator houses, 
but were assured that the modern American type of incubators 
used were giving satisfactory results in these simple structures. 

The 300 feet long brooder house was furnished with sec- 
tional brooders. These were fairly satisfactory, but a change 
in the piping was in prospect to make the circulation more 
perfect. After using the continuous house system a sentiment 
was expressed in favor of the separate outdoor brooder plan 
with brooders placed under cover of a small house in the early 
season when the weather is bleak or the ground apt to be slushy 
—th«n the small house would be ready for the well-grown 
chicks after they no longer require its protection, and it can be 
removed and used for younger broods. The chicks were kept 
in this long brooder house until some of them were old enough 
to market. They will do better now since the hay fields are 
swept of their product, and the young stock can occupy a greater 
part of the movable houses — can range over new ground, fill- 
ing up on insects and tender grass, for the frequent rains keep 
the hay fields green here. 

We noticed in the long brooder house an American made 
bucket spray pump which we were told was used for spraying 
the houses and small coops with coal oil. A box for destroying 
gapes was shown us in which the fowls sat upon slats above the 
fumes of carbolic acid heated to steam by two lamps. The 
upper story of the box could be made quite tight or opened at 
the side and the birds were watched through a couple of glass- 
lights at the sides to see that all was going well. It was claimed 
to be effective in destroying the gapes. We would wanl to ex- 
periment with this fumigator cautiously, however, at first. 

THE CAPONIZING TABLE OR EASEL 

We illustrate the style of caponizing table used on this 
place. It is really an "easel." It holds the bird on the opera- 
ting board in the mtst convenient position of any we have seen, 
and the operator's claim for it is that in this position the intes- 
tines of the bird fall away so that the parts worked upon are 
easily exposed when operating. 

The wings are held together above the bird's back by a 
bent iron rod or hook, and the legs placed together through a 
loop in a strap as seen in the illustration, and both the iron rod 
and strap each have a separate weight sufficient to hold the bird 
securely without bruising it. This easel has somewhat the ap- 
pearance of the table used at the South Shore Roaster Plant 
described in the Reliable Poultry Journal, its chief difference 
being in the more upright tilt, which this expert operator claims 
he has found to facilitate his work. 

The illustration to the left shows quite plainly the position 
in which the bird is placed on the "easel." The feathers have 
just been plucked from the side of the bird through which the 
operator intended to work. The second photograph with the 
operator just starting to work, shows the convenience with 
which the work is done — a box or a table at the right of the 
operator holding the few simple instruments used (which were 
of American make). The bowl was used to hold water with 
carbolic acid added to it. In this carbolized water the instru- 
ments were frequently washed and the knife dipped before each 
ncision was made. The time spent upon caponizing was con- 
dered a very small item compared to the labor of making and 
keeping up fences. The young males handled as capons are 
quiet and require less feed to bring them to the marketable size. 
The capons do not fight and worry each other and no fences 



being required to separate them from the pullets, they bring a 
good profit with the smallest amount of outlay. 

The young bird on the caponizing easel is one of the crosses 
from the White Old English Game Cock and a W T hite Wyan- 
dotte female; the reversion resulting in this case showed some 
red plumage on the shoulders of the wings. 

THE FEEDS USED 

The principal foods we found at this place were, for soft 
feeds, barley meal and middlings with 12 per cent of meat meal 
or blood and bone, with some small grit mixed in. This was 
being fed to the growing stock, and in the evening, wheat and 
dari to the younger chicks and considerable maize to the older 
chickens. Maize (corn) was being also fed freely as an evening 
feed to the old stock at the time of our visit, as they explained — 
"We are glad to get them into good flesh, or even quite fat be- 
fore molting — after they commence to drop their feathers well 
we will hold up on the fattening foods and feed a better diet 
for laying condition. This would consist mostly of good sound 
oats." 



CAPONIZING-HOW TO DO IT 

FULL AND EXPLICIT DIRECTIONS FOR CAPONIZING 

Every poultry raiser has each year a large number of sur- 
plus cockerels. These he finds it hard to dispose of at a profit. 
In the market he can seldom get for them (in their natural state) 
more than one-half or two-thirds of what he can readily obtain 
for pullets and hens. It is a fact, however, that when properly 
caponized and brought to a marketable size, he can obtain for 
these same cockerels, now developed into capons, twice as much 
as he can get for his pullets and hens. 

A Chicago commission merchant, with whom the writer 
had a talk in June, reported capons sailing at twelve to eighteen 
cents per pound in that city during the season, and the demand 
strong. He was then handling capons bought from Illinois, 
Ohio and Indiana that weighed ten, eleven and twelve pounds. 
They were killed when from ten months to a year old. 

DIRECTIONS FOR CAPONIZING 

From twenty-four to thirty hours before performing the 
operation, select such cockerels as you intend to caponize (these 
should be from two to four months old), confining them in a 
clean and airy coop or room without either food or water. The 
best time to confine them is at early morning, 
as their long fast will then end about noon of 
the following day, at which time the operation 
is best performed. Should the day be cloudy 
or wet do not caponize them, but let the opera- 
tion go until you have a bright and fair day. 
It is necessary that you have all the light pos- 
sible in the matter. If it be a cloudy day and 
you decide not to caponize, the birds may be 
given a little water and food if necessary, but 
it is much better to avoid this if possible, as it 
is very desirable to have their intestines quite 
empty, thus allowing their testicles to be more 
readily seen, besides giving the operator much 
more room in which to perform his work. Lay the bird on the 
operating table (this table is fully described elsewhere in this 
article) on its left side. Wrap the cord (Fig. 1) twice around 
the birds legs, above the knees. In making one wrap only, 
there is danger of the birds kicking themselves out of the loop. 



Fig. 1 — Cord for 
Holding Fowl 



154 



ROASTERS, BROILERS AND CAPONS 



Hook the other cord once around both his wings close to the 
body. To the opposite end of these cords attach a half brick, 
or some other weight, letting them hang over the sides of the 
table. This holds the bird securely. Have all your instru- 



^ 



FIG. 2-KNIFE FOR MAKING CUT 

ments in readiness, that you may work quickly. Thread the 
canula (Fig. 5) with a strong and long horse-hair or fine steel 
wire (we think wire the better), letting the wire form a loop at 
the curved end, and extend well out at the other end. Now, 
after slightly wetting the spot, proceed to pluck the feathers 
from the upper part of the last two ribs and just in front of the 
thigh joint. Pull the flesh on the side down toward the hip, 
and when the operation is finished the cut between the ribs will 
be entirely closed by the skin going back to its place. While 
holding the flesh back with the left hand, with the right 
hand take the knife (Fig. 2) and insert it (cutting edge away 
from you) between the last two ribs, cutting first down, and 
then up a little way, following the direction of the ribs, making 
the cut not over one inch long. Cut deep enough to go through 
skin and flesh, being very careful not to go so deep as to cut the 
intestines. There is little danger of 
doing this, however, if they are 
empty, as they will be from the bird's 
long fast. The danger of cutting the 
intestines is when they are full, as in 
this state they press against the ribs. 
Should the cut bleed, stop a moment, 
let the blood clot on the thin skin 
covering the bowels, and then remove 
it with the spoon forceps. Next take 
the Spring Spreader (Fig. 3), press 
it between the thumb and finger 
until the ends come together, insert- 
ing the ends in the incision, with the spring end toward 
the bird's feet (see operating table). Upon looking into 
the cut a thin tissue-like skin will be seen just under 
the ribs and enclosing the bowels. Take a sharp hook (Fig. 
4) and pick the tissue open, so that you may get in- 
to the bird with the instruments. The breaking of this skin 
does not cause the least pain to the bird. One of the 
testicles will now be brought plainly to view, lying close up to 
the back of the fowl. Sometimes both testicles are in sight, 
but this is not generally the case, as the other one lies beyond 
and more on the other side of the bird, the intestines prevent- 
ing it from being seen from this opening. The testicle brought 
to view is enveloped in a film. This should be brought away 
with the testicle. Some people, in caponizing, tear the skin 
open and then take the testicle out. The danger in so doing is, 
that if this skin is left, there is danger of causing a "slip." 

Now comes the only dangerous part of the whole operation, 
getting hold of and removing the testicles; but with a steady 
hand and plenty of light not one bird in fifty should be lost. 




Fig. 3 — Spring Spreader 



FIG. 4-SHARP HOOK TO OPEN FILM LIKE SKIN 

Attached to the testicle and lying back of it is one of the prin- 
cipal arteries of the fowl, and this, if ruptured, is sure to cause 



death. It is here that the canula (Fig. 5) proves of great ad- 
vantage. The hair (or wire) being small and very fine, is easily 
slipped between the testicle and artery without injury to either, 
and a clear, clean cut made. Take the canula in the right hand 
and adjust the hair (or wire) in it so that a loop about one-half 
inch long will extend from small end of tube, leaving the two 
ends of wire extending far enough out of the open end to secure 
a good hold. Insert the end of the tube that has the loop on 
it very carefully and slip the loop over both ends of the testicle 
and entirely around it, hold end of tube close down to the tes- 
ticle. When the testicle is entirely encircled by the loop, take 
both ends of the wire (or horsehair) which comes out of the 
other end of the tube with thumb and first finger, holding it 





FIG. 5-CAPONIZING CANULA 

tight, and draw up on it carefully but firmly, being particularly 
careful to have the loop around testicle. Keep the end of the 
tube very close to testicle all the time. If drawing up on the 
wire does not at once cut testicle, slightly turn from one side 
to the other (but not entirely around), then the testicle will 
come off. After removing it, carefully examine inside of bird 
to see that no piece is left in, and also to see that no foreign 
substance, such as feathers, etc., has gotten in. If any have, 
it is necessary to remove them, for if allowed to remain, they 
are liable to cause inflammation. Sometimes a feather or part 
of the testicle may drop among the bowels; if this occurs move 
bowels around with probe (Fig. 6) until the object is found, 
then remove with spoon forceps. When the operation is per- 
formed, remove the spreader at once and the skin will very soon 
slip back over the cut and heal in a short time. Never sew the 
cut as it will heal just the same as any other small flesh wound. 
The bird can now be turned over on its right side, cut made 
and testicle removed in exactly the same manner as just des- 
cribed for the left side. Both testicles may be taken out with 
the one incision, but to the learner we would say this is attended 
with more difficulty than the two incisions. The other testicle 
being situated so far over on the other side, there is more diffi- 
culty in reaching it, besides danger in piercing artery running 
back of first testicle. To an experienced person there is no 
danger in removing both testicles from one incision, but to those 



FIG. 6-CAPONIZING PROBE 



who have not that degree of confidence given by practice wo 
would recommend the two cuts. The bird recovers just ;is 
quickly as though one cut were made, and the operation is 
performed equally as quick, if not quicker. If both testicles 
are removed from one cut, the lower must always be taken out 
first, for if the top is first removed, the small amount of blood 
that may follow will cover the lower one, keeping it from view. 
A "slip" is neither capon nor cockerel. He is much in- 
ferior to the former and a great deal worse than the latter. 
The "slip" is caused by not entirely removing the testicles. 
The smallest fraction left in the bird will grow again with no 
benefit to the fowl. 



l.V, 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



THE BEST TIME TO CAPONIZE 



KILLING AND DRESSING CAPONS FOR MARKET 



Fowls hatched early in the spring make the finest capons. 
They can be cut before hot weather comes, which is a great ad- 
vantage although no ill results follow the operation at any time 
in the year. The bird should be from two to three months old 
(not over six months,) ami weigh not less than a pound to a 

pound and a half. 
The size is equally 
as important as the 
age. June, July, 
August, September 
and October are 
the months gener- 
ally taken for 
caponizing, for the 
reason that spring 
chickens arrive at 
proper age and 
weight for market 
during the months 
of January, Febru- 
tinies there is the 




Fig. 7 The above Photograph was Etagrai 
ed from Life, Illustrates tk*' Method of Holding 

I i >v, I Keaily fi »r Capuni/itiL:. 

which 



ary, March, April and May, at 

I demand for them in the cities, and the highest 

prices secured. That capons are in our markets at certain 
seasons only, is because the demand is far in excess of the 
supply. The time \\ill !»' when capons may be obtained the 
year around. 

OPERATING TABLE 

The top of an ordinary barrel ( -ee illustration) meets all 
requirements of a table, admits of the birds being easily secured, 

brings the birds to the proper height with the operator; in brief, 
makes as good a table as can I >e desired. It costs nothing, as 
there is always an empty barrel lying around, or one that can 
be easily emptied. 

Our first advice would be, "Keep cool and make haste 
slowly." If you are rather tender-hearted, read the directions 
over carefully and then try your hand on a deail fowl. All 
Burgeons do this in the first place, and probably it would be as 

well for you to follow their example. Have plenty of light. 
It is impossible to perform the operation unless you have this. 
After your firsl performance oi caponizing you will be sur- 
prised at its simplicity. Always keep your instruments in per- 
fect order. Before Using the knife see that the edge is sharp, 
and that the other tools are as they should be. After beginning 
the operation of caponizing there should be nothing to hinder 
you from going right ahead. 

FEEDING CAPONS 

The question is often asked "How are capons to be fed?" 
After caponizing give the bird all he will eat of soft food, and 
let him have plenty of water. Caponized fowls begin to eat 
almost immediately after the operation is performed, and no one 
would think for a moment that a radical change had been made 
in their nature. Now leave the bird to himself, as for the time 
being he is his own doctor. It is well to look him over two or 
three days after the operation, as in breathing, the air sometimes 
gets under the skin causing "wind puff" or a sight swelling, 
in other words. Simply prick through the skin at the sides with 
a sharp needle, gently pressing at the same time, when the air 
will be expelled and the capon relieved. Within ten days from 
the operation the wounds will be healed over. A day or so after 
caponizing the bird should be allowed to run at large, treating 
him just the same as any growing poultry would be treated. 



FIG. S-POULTRY KILLING 
KNIFE 



The capons should be allowed to grow at least one year old. 
By this time they will have attained an imposing size. Some 
keep them even longer than a year. While this is optional with 
the raiser, yet we should not advocate killing them under one 
year old if they are being raised for market. 

There is a great difference between the dressing of capons 
and an ordinary fowl. 

When the capons are ready for market, select such as you 
propose killing, and confine them. Keep them without food or 
water for about twenty-four hours before killing, that their 
crops may be entirely emptied. Now get ready your place for 
killing and dressing the fowls (if you have conveniences in the 
chicken house this will do quite well, or the woodshed, or any 
cool outhouse), and drive two heavy nails or wooden pins about 
one foot or less apart in an overhead beam. Make two nooses 
of strong string, each noose long enough to hold one each of 
the legs, and have the capons hang low enough to pluck with 
i ase. Have a weight of two or two and one-half pounds attached 
to a hook, and when the bird is killed, fasten this hook in his lower 
bill after you hang him up for plucking. The weight holds the bird 
in position while picking and renders the operation much easier. 

Next procure a table to dress the fowl upon, and make a 
frame on the same principle as a small box without the ends and 
cover. In this you lay the capon, back down, to remove the 
intestine^. 

When everything is in readiness take your capon and sus- 
pend him by the two legs from the nooses. Catch hold of his 
head, and with your poultry killing knife cut vein at back of 

throat, through the mouth. 

Never cut this from the out- ES?>IOJI€Z<Sj»g^L ^^^ > 
side. Immediately upon 
cutting vein, run point of 
knife through roof of the 
mouth clear into the brain. This operation causes what is 
termed "dropping the feathers," making them come off more 
easily. As soon as the knife enters the brain the bird loses all 
sense of feeling. Begin plucking at once. 

As to the style of dressing, the feathers are left on the 
wings up to second joint, the head and hackle feathers, also on 
legs half way up to the drumsticks, all the tail feathers, includ- 
ing those a little way up the back and the long feathers on hips 
close to tail. These feathers add greatly to appearance of the 
bird when dressed, and are also a ready marker from other 
fowls in markets. Never cut the head off, as this is a disting- 
uishing feature of the bird. A capon may readily be identified 
among a thousand cockerels, as the comb and wattles cease to 
grow immediately after caponizing is performed. Wash head 
and mouth well with cold water, being careful to remove all 
blood. A capon should not be torn in plucking. There is no 
danger of this happening if proper care is taken. Place the 
plucked fowl back downwards in the box frame already described. 
Cut carefully around the vent and pull out the intestines. These 
will be found covered with fat, which, as they are pulled out, 
should be pushed back. When the end of the intestines is 
reached, insert .your finger and break this off, leaving every- 
thing else in. As may be expected the fat will be found very 
heavy around the opening, and if slightly turned outward will 
soon become hard, which will give a rich appearance in this 
portion of the bird. Let the birds hang in a clean, cool place 
until thoroughly cold. For packing use a new box of the re- 
quired size, lined with white paper (any good, clean paper will 
do). Pack the birds in solid, back up, being careful not to bruise 
them. Your birds are then ready for market. With a bird 
not torn and the feathers left on, you have a fowd which for 
inviting and "taking" appearance it is impossible to equal. 



156 




TABLE POULTRY AT THE DAIRY SHOW, LONDON, ENGLAND 



l— The successful fitter of live pairs of First Prize Table Fowls at the Dairy Show | 1 14 pairs competing! ami his first prize specimens. 

2 — Right, First Prize Winning Goose. 

3 — Table Ducks and Geese. The nearest pair of Ducks winners of First Prize. 

4— The central pair winners of Special for Best Pair of Table Fowls and winners of the Gold and Silver Medal. 



CHAPTER TEN 

MARKET POULTRY AND EGGS 

HOW TO PREPARE POULTRY FOR MARKET 

SELLING STOCK ALIVE AND DRESSED— METHODS OF DRESSING— SHIPPING CRATES AND BOXES— HIGH 
PRICES OBTAINABLE FOR FANCY HIGH GRADE POULTRY AND EGGS— FEATHERS ARE VALUABLE 

FRED HAXTON 




|HE sure road to success in raising poultry for 
market purposes is quality. It is immensely 
more profitable to produce a small number of 
birds and sell thcin at high prices than it would 
I"' to raise a large number and sell them at 
the ordinary market rate. From five to fifteen 
cents a pound premium is paid for strictly 
fancy dressed poultry — in fact, the best goods 
command almost their own price, and are seldom to be found 
in the open market, generally being sold by the poultryman to 
fine hotels and clubs and markets in exclusive neighborhoods, 
without allowing a middleman a share in the profits. To 
illustrate tin it "fancy goods bring fancy prices," it 

may be stated that a club in Chicago pays 50 cents a dozen 
the year around for its eggs, and takes all the capons a large 
poultryman can raise at 40 cents a pound. 

Alter making his name on a box of poultry a synonym for 
quality, the market poultryman will find no difficulty in dispos- 
ing of all the stock he can raise at a good premium. Private 
trade pays best, if a regular supply can be given. In nearly all 
markets, however, the best dealers will agree to pay a certain 
bonus on every pound of fancy poultry. The requirements of 
practically all the markets for poultry are similar. 

SHIPPING LIVE POULTRY 

A standard poultry crate is used in all the large markets, 
and to secure highest prices the birds should be shipped only in 
these. The fowls look much better in crates of uniform size, 
and are more easily packed in freight or express cars and handled 
in the markets. These coops may be bought at a low price in 
any large poultry market, or may be easily constructed by the 
shipper. The crates should be 4 feet long, 30 inches wide, 12 
inches high for chickens and ducks, and 18 inches high for tur- 
keys and geese. The corner posts are of 2 by 2 inch stuff and 
two of these also are used in the middle of the coop. Six pieces 
ot '_' inch stuff 12 inches long and six pieces 30 inches long are 
cut and nailed into three rectangles, one for each end and one 
for the middle of the crate. Ten-penny nails are used. Half- 
inch boards are nailed on the bottom, which is made tight. 
Strips \ inch thick and 2 inches wide are nailed on the sides 
and top, about 1* inches apart. Two strips are left loose on 
the top for putting in or removing poultry, or a hinged door 
is applied. Laths are nailed around the coops at the ends and 
in the middle to keep the strips from coming off. The coop for 
broilers should be 10 inches high and 2 feet wide. These crates 
are both light and strong and being open prevent the smothering 
of the birds if they are not crowded too tightly in the crates 

Care should be taken to ship birds of about the same size 
and color together. A crate of fowls of uniform color and size 
will bring two or three cents a pound more than would a case of 



black, white, speckled and large and small chickens mixed in- 
discriminately. Young fowls should not be shipped with old 
ones, for then the chances are that the whole shipment will be 
sold as old stock. 

Most of the loss in shipping live poultry is due to suffoca- 
tion, some crates arriving on the hottest days containing three 
to a half dozen dead birds. In hot weather do not put more 
than 100 pounds of adult birds in a coop, but in cold weather 
120 pounds may be shipped. Of spring chickens when small, 50 
to 60 pounds may be sent in the regulation coop and when large, 
70 to 90 pounds. It is best to ship the hens, pullets, cockerels 
and cocks in separate crates, but when a shipper has not suffi- 
cient birds, mixed lots may be sent. It is seldom profitable to 
send to market live spring chickens weighing less than a pound, 
as the supply is immense and the market is often glutted. It 
is better to send these dressed as broilers. Chickens weighing a 
pound and a half to two pounds sell best early in the season; 
late in the spring two-pound weights are preferred. In the early 
spring when young birds first come in, some small ones will 
sell well, but as soon as the stock begins to be plentiful the small 
chickens are not wanted. Along in June and July, when chickens 
are bought to place in cold storage, two pounders are preferred. 
As a general thing, two-pound stock sells best the year around. 

Live poultry should be shipped so as to reach the market 
from Tuesday to Friday. As receipts increase toward the end 
of the week, enough stock is left over to supply the trade on 
Monday, and late in the week dealers prefer to sell the fowls at 
a sacrifice rather than carry them over Sunday and have the 
trouble and expense of feeding them. Monday, is usually 
a poor day to sell poultry. 

Just before shipping, the birds should be fed and watered 
liberally, whole corn and wheat being the most sustaining foods. 
If the trip is to be a long one it is a good plan to provide a few 
handfuls of grain in a corner of the crate. Some shippers tack 
half a cabbage to the top of the coop. 

The large dealers have special cars for shipping live poultry. 
The coops are built right into the coaches, the sides of which 
are covered with wire netting. A car will hold 5,000 birds, 
and an attendant travels with the shipment, sometimes as far 
as from California to New York, to feed and water the stock. 
These cars are rented to the dealers who pay a certain rate in 
advance of the regular freight charges for the use of them. The 
rental for a thousand mile trip is S42, and at the end of the 
journey the birds weigh more than they did when they started. 
Five hundred of these cars are in use on the leading railroads 
and more are being constructed. 

Express and freight rates on live poultry are low. The 
coop weighs about forty pounds, and is returned when empty 
for 10 cents, nearly all the railroads making this special rate. 
Shipments of around 400 miles generally cost about SI. 25 a 



158 



MARKET POULTRY AND EGGS 



hundred pounds, by express, and considerably less by fast 
freight. 

Tags with the name of the consignee and the shipper should 
be attached to both ends of each coop so that if one is torn off 
the other will remain. It is also advisable for the shipper to 
stencil his name and address on each crate, to insure its return. 

Most of the live poultry is shipped from April to November, 
the bulk of the supply in the winter months being sent dressed. 
This is because of the fact that during hot weather poultry will 
spoil unless carefully packed in ice, and many shippers find it 
difficult to obtain clean ice at reasonable prices. In fact, the 
poultry market 'generally is comparatively dull in the summer 
months, the first touch of cold weather adding several cents a 
pound to the prices. 

DRESSING CHICKENS 

Dealers everywhere give notice that all poultry should be 
well fed and watered and then kept from IS to 24 hours without 
food before killing. Stock dresses out better when it is well 
watered and appears much brighter. Full crops injure the 
appearance of the bird and the contents are liable to sour. When 
this happens only low prices will be paid. 




CAR LOADED WITH POULTRY 

One of the special poultry cars loaded with live fowls destined for the 
large city markets. 

Kill chickens by bleeding in the mouth or opening the 
veins of the neck, and hang by the feet until properly bled. Leave 
head and feet on and do not remove the intestines or crop. For 
scalding chickens the water should be near the boiling point 
but not boiling (160 to 175 degrees Fahrenheit). Pick the legs 
dry before scalding; hold by the head and legs and immerse and 
lift up and down five or six times; if the head is immersed it 
turns the color of the comb and gives the eyes a shrunken ap- 
pearance, which leads buyers to think the fowl has been sick. 
The feathers and pin feathers should then be removed immedi- 
ately while the body is warm, very cleanly and without break- 
ing the skin. Next "plump" by dipping ten seconds in water 
nearly or quite boiling hot, and then immediately into cold 
water. Hang in a cool place (or better place on shelves in the 
shape you wish them to appear when cooled — hanging draws 
the breast muscles and makes them look thinner when cool and 
harder to pack) until the animal heat is entirely out of the body. 

To dry pick chickens properly, the work should be done 
while the chickens are bleeding; do not wait and let the bodies 
get cold. Dry picking is much more easily done while the 
bodies are warm. Be careful and do not break and tear the skin. 
The plumping is very essential. Do not singe the bodies for 



the purpose of removing any hair or down, as the heat from the 
flame will give an oily and unsightly appearance. Remove pin 
feathers thoroughly, but if it is impossible to take them out 
without tearing the skin cut them off with a sharp knife. Dry 
picked poultry generally commands a higher price than scalded 
stock, and is safer for shipment in warm or doubtful weather. 
Scalded birds are less attractive than those dry picked, because 
unless the scalding is done with great care and by an expert 
the skin usually is discolored in places and becomes puffy after 
a day or two. Chicago accepts both scalded and dry picked 
stock, generally, however, paying a premium for the latter. 
Boston insists on dry picked, and the better trade in New York 
and other large cities will have nothing else. 

"Shaping" the birds is an essential to securing fancy prices. 
This is done by placing them in a trough 10 inches wide, with 
an angle of the opening about 70 degrees. The chickens are put 
in the trough back down, and the flesh is forced forward onto 
the breast and the whole body made compact. This will make 
even a scrawny bird look plump and a fine one will undergo a 
great transformation. On top of the trough a thin board is 
placed and on this a weight. After the fowls have been in the 
shaper a few hours and all the animal heat has disappeared 
they are ready for packing. It is important that the bird be 
thoroughly cooled before shipment, and if ice is placed on the 
chickens in cooling them — which is inadvisable but sometimes 
necessary in hot weather, — all the moisture should disappear 
before they are removed for shipment, unless the birds are to 
be shipped in ice. Do not cool the fowls too rapidly. 

DRESSING TURKEYS 

Kill in the same manner as chickens, but drypick while the 
turkey is bleeding. Do not wait until the body gets cold. Be 
careful not to break the skin and do not remove the head. 
Markets differ as to whether the neck and wing feathers should 
lie left on, but most require that they be untouched. The tail 
feathers come off with a twist; a straight pull wul "set" them. 
All old and heavy gobblers should be marketed before January 
1st, the demand after the holidays being for small, fat hen tur- 
keys. From the middle of October to the first of the year is 
the best period for selling turkeys, although early in the season 
there is a great demand for "baby turkeys," as they are called, 
which weigh about five pounds apiece and bring high prices — 
sometimes as great as a full grown turkey would fetch later in 
the fall. 

DUCKS AND GEESE 

When not dry picked, scald in the same manner as chickens, 
but remember that more time is required for the water to pene- 
trate and loosen the feathers. Do not try to pluck the plumage 
just before killing for the sake of securing a higher price for 
the feathers, as this gives the skin an inflamed appearance and 
causes injury to the sale. Leave the feet on and do not pick 
the feathers off the head; also leave the plumage on the neck 
for 2 or 3 inches. Do not singe the bodies, as this spoils their 
appearance. After they are picked clean the fowls should be 
held in scalding water ten seconds, for plumping, and then rinsed 
off in clean, cold water. Fat, heavy ducks always bring by far 
the best prices, and it does not pay to ship thin birds as they 
can be fattened iu two or three weeks and bring several cents 
a pound more. 

CAPONS 

Only large, heavy fat capons are wanted. A thin capon 
will bring no better price than an old roaster, but prime, fat 
capons command the best of prices the year around and dealers 
in every city complain that they cannot secure enough to supply 



lid 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



the demand. Capons always are dry picked. The feathers 
should be left on the neck from the head two-thirds of the way 
down to the shoulders and likewise on the first two joints of the 
wing. The feathers also should be left on the tail and half 
way up the back, and on the legs from the knee joint two-thirds 
up the hips. In fact, only the feathers around the body itself 
are removed, and there is less shrinkage in dressing capons than 
in any other class of poultry, the only loss being the blood and 
the body feathers. Care should be taken to keep the capon 




DRESSING ROASTING FOWLS 

Feathers fall to the floor, and are swept up constantly, dried, and sold, 
being a source of considerable revenue. The five men shown at the table 
have dressed 700 fowls in one daw 

clean, and paper should be wrapped around the head to prevent 
it from Boiling the plumage of Other birds when they are packed 
in boxes. 

BROILERS 

Nearly all the broilers are shipped dressed, as the trade 
is conducted only in cold weather, and is at its height from March 
in June, Those who make the largest profits, however, en- 
deavor to place the birds on the market as soon after the first 
of January as possible. From the latter part of November 
until after New Year's the bulk of the demand is for large fowls 
for roasting and frying, but after the holidays broilers come to 
the front. Some of the largest growers find a steady demand 
.very week in the year, by contracting to furnish a stated supply 
to large hotels or restaurants, or to dealers who handle the 
best class of stock. For the live poultry trade, chickens averag- 
ing a pound each are in greatest demand early in the year. 
These never sell for less than S3 a dozen, and often bring nearly 
a dollar apiece. The prices decline gradually after the first of 
.March, but remain high until well along in the summer. Ten 
dollars a dozen often lias been paid for live one pound birds in 
February. 

After April 30th, most of the chicks are sold by weight, 
and hundreds of thousands of broilers are reaching the dealers 
by that time. The advice of the largest commission men is: 
Hatch broilers early. November is not too soon to begin, and 
the first shipped bring the fancy prices. In May it is best to 
send broilers weighing one and one-half to one and three-quarter 
pounds, which are worth $6 to $7 a dozen. 

Broilers should be diessed in the same way as chickens. 
ROASTERS 

The raising of "soft roasters'' has become an independent 
industry, and properly prepared birds weighing more than six 
pounds being in great demand from the first of January until 



the middle of the summer, and again from September on to 
Thanksgiving. These command prices almost as high per 
pound as broilers, and are simply young birds, generally from 
six to nine months old — put through a special fattening process 
to make them plump and tender. They are dressed, dry-picked, 
wrapped in parchment paper and packed a dozen or a half dozen 
in a box. The supply of these usually is contracted for, and 
comparatively few are found in the open market. From 20 to 
35 cents a pound is paid throughout the season. 

SHIPPING DRESSED POULTRY 

Even though a bird is properly dressed, it will reach market 
in bad shape unless care is taken in packing it. Fancy stock 
always sells better when shipped in neat boxes holding one or 
two dozen birds each. 

The dealers have agreed on certain sizes of boxes for differ- 
ent grades of stock, and these only should be used. Basswood 
or any other material except cedar may be used for the boxes; 
cedar taints the flesh. Each bird should be wrapped in parch- 
ment paper, which makes it keep longer; ordinary butchers or 
wrapping paper, on the other hand, hastens deterioration. Two 
layers of fowls are put in a box, six facing one end and six the 
other. The regulation box for broilers is made of i inch lumber, 
and is 16 by 16 by 4 inches, inside measure. This will hold a 
dozen birds. Care should be taken to assort each lot so that the 
broilers put into each individual box are nearly uniform in size, 
color and weight. Lots should range from 1.5 to IS pounds per 
dozen, or 19 to 22 pounds, or 23 to 26 pounds. These average 
ranges of weights follow naturally as the season advances. The 
largest broiler dealer in the West says: "Boxes should be paper 
lined, at least, and each broiler should be wrapped in paper if 
the shipper wants appearance to count in the disposition of his 
stock. Buyers like to see broilers packed breast up. All culls 
and off stock should be packed separately and so marked. 

For roasting chickens the inside measurements of the box 
is 18 by 8 by 30 inches. This will hold twenty-four roasters, in 




DRESSING FOWLS IN A LARGE CHICAGO ESTABLISHMENT 

The men work at tables and each dresses his own fowl. They strip 
the bodies first, then the legs, and then the neck. Machines do not work 
well on scalded poultry. These men are members of a union, and make 
good pay. 



two layers. Uniformity in size, color and weights of roasters 
packed in each box is absolutely necessary for attainment of the 
best results. A good three-layer box is 24 by IS by 12 inches, 
but the two-layer package is most favored by the trade. 

For adult fowls the standard box is 20 by IS by 12 inches. 



160 



MARKET POULTRY AND EGGS 



This will hold 24 birds. For turkeys the standard box is 26 by 24 
by 15 inches. This will hold twelve young toms, or six young 
toms and eight hens, or sixteen hens. 

On the outside of each box should be stencilled the shippers' 
name and the gross, tare and net weight of the box with the 
grade of the fowls it contains. The largest poultry dealers in 
the world, Swift & Co., pack their stock in boxes and grade it 
as follows: 

Weight per doz. 

Small broilers, 20 to 2.5 pounds. 

Large broilers, 26 to 30 pounds. 

Small fryers, 31 to 36 pounds. 

Large fryers, 37 to 42 pounds. 

Small roasters, 43 to 48 pounds. 

Medium roasters, 49 to 60 pounds. 

Large roasters, 60 pounds and over. 

As poultry packed in boxes cannot, of course, be iced, the 
shipments should be sent in refrigerator cars. Some successful 
poultrymen who have a trade direct to 
the families pack the birds in paste- 
board boxes, each holding one bird. 
Common stock, which constitutes the 
bulk of the shipments, is sent in bar- 
rels. Three or 4 inches of ice, broken 
to the size of a fist is put in the bot- 
tom, and on this is packed a layer of 
poultry with the heads down, the 
backs up and the feet in the center 
of the barrels. Another layer of ice 
2 or 3 inches thick is put on top and 
then another layer of chickens, ducks 
or geese, and ice, and so on until the 
barrel is full. A fifty-pound cake of 
ice is put on top and over all is ap- 
plied a piece of burlap, kept in posi- 
tion by the top hoop. The poultry 
should not be frozen before being 
packed as frozen stock is worth two 
or three cents a pound less than that 
not frozen. 

HOW TO SELL 

A private trade brings the best 
returns. If the poultryman is near a 
city of good size he will have no diffi- 
culty in disposing of his products at 
prices far above those paid in the open 
market. Next to a family trade — or 

preferable to it if the business done is a large one — is the 
supplying of the best hotels and restaurants, or clubs. If 
direct sales are impracticable, as often is the case because 
of the grower's distance from the market, arrangements can 
be made with a city dealer or commission man to take all the 
birds raised. Capons, fancy roasters, broilers and other fine 
stock generally are contracted for, some shippers being paid from 
5 to 10 cents a pound above the market price the year around. 
If the goods are sold through commission merchants, care should 
be taken to investigate the reliability of the merchant, as a 
dangerous number of "fly-by-night" concerns are in the business 
to fleece everybody with whom they deal, rleeiim with the gains. 
This practice is so common that the United Stall's government 
has issued this advice to shippers: ••Beware of being tempted 

by higher market quotations than are sent out by well estab- 
lished dealers. High quotations are the Favorite bait of the 
imposter." 

"There is also a legal point that is well to bear in mind: 
In most, if not all. states, when a commission merchant receives 



goods on consignment he becomes the shipper's agent, and any 
attempt to defraud his principal is punishable by fine or imprison- 
ment. Not so if he buys goods outright, agreeing to pay for 
them at a stated price. In the latter case the shipper's only 
recourse if he fails to receive the contract price is a civil suit, 
resulting in a judgment generally worth no more than the paper 
it is written on. For this reason dishonest merchants fre- 
quently offer to buy outright. Too great care cannot be exer- 
cised in these matters. When a direct sale is made, except to a 
well-known house of good reputation, the safest method of pro- 
cedure is for the shipper to consign the goods to his own order, 
making draft through bank or express company and attaching 
it to the bill of lading from the railroad company, properly 
endorsed. The bank or the express company will then present 
the draft and surrender the bill of lading only on payment, so 
that the commission merchant cannot obtain the goods until 
he has paid for them." Five cents on the dollar is the usual 
commission for selling poultry. 




BOXES AND BARRELS USED FOR PACKING DRESSED POULTRY FORjSHIPMENT 



SAVE THE FEATHERS 

The poultryman overlooks an important source of profit 
if he neglects to save the feathers. The value of the feathers is 
an important reason for dry-picking the birds, as dry-picked 
body feathers from chickens bring from is to 19 cents a pound, 
while scalded feathers are worth only a cent a pound. The 
demand i< steady the year around, the following being the 
average prices per pound: 

Prime Live i leese, white 

Mixed ( Jrey Feathers 

All Grey 

old Geese, according to quality... 
Mixed ( leese and Duck 

Duck Feathers, white 

Mixed , 32 

Old Duck, according to quality.. IS 



lit) 


@ 


62 


43 


® 


ii 


18 


@ 


42 


20 


(5 


lit 


35 




? 


19, 




11 


32 




Xi 


15 




15 



101 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



Chicken body dry picked, prime 03$ @ 04* 

Green or musty-.- 02 @ 04 

Dry but quilly... @ 03$ 

Dry picked, quilly and damp 01 @ 02 

Scalded— 01 @ 

White Chicken body, dry picked.- 18 @ 19 

Chicken and Turkey body, mixed.. @ 04$ 

Turkey Body, dry and choice @ 06$ 

Green and little damp 01 (a) 

White Turkey body, dry, prime HO @ 70 

Tail, choice and clear.. _ @ 40 

Tail, mixed with skirt feathers 20 @ 25 

Wing, from first two joints - @ 19 

Wing, tail and pointers. - - @ 17 

Wing and tail clear - (S 25 

Wing and pointers. @ 13 

Pointers @ 07 

In picking turkeys, says the Shippers Guide, save all the 
feathers that grow on the tail of the turkey; also those on the two 
joints of the wing next the body. The pointed one-sided quills 
that grow on the outside or tip of the wing sell at a low price, 
and should be kept separate from the others. It would be best 
to keep each kind separate. Lay quill feathers straight, in as 




A BOX OF DRESSED POULTRY OPENED TO SHOW 
METHOD OF PACKING 

light boxes as possible; do not stuff them into bags, as it breaks 
them. Body feathers should be shipped in sacks. Before 
packing weigh your boxes with the covers, and mark the weight 
in plain figures on the side of the box. 

Chicken body feathers should be forked over to allow the 

al heal to get out of the feathers; they should be well dried 

out before shipping as the dampness mats them together, and 
they sometimes arrive heated and mouldy. Be sure and have 
no quill feathers mixed in with the body feathers. They can be 
shipped in sacks. Dry picked feathers command best prices. 
White chicken body feathers, dry picked, command big prices, 
but must be kept dry and clean. Feathers should be spread 
out on a floor to dry for if shipped at once they may become 
musty. Burlap bags are commonly used for shipping. 

PROFITS IN COLD STORAGE 

Whenever the supply of poultry in any market exceeds the 
demand, the surplus is put into cold storage where it is kept 
until prices are high again, often being left in the coolers seven 
or eight months. In addition, hundreds of thousands of dollars 
are invested each summer in poultry to be put in refrigerators 
until next winter. Rather than sell stock at low prices, the 
poultryman often will find it profitable to place the birds in 



storage warehouses until the demand is strong. The warehouses 
will take small consignments as well as large ones, and the rates 
are extremely low. One-fourth of a cent per pound is charged 
for the first sixty days or less, and thereafter an eighth of a cent 
a pound per month. All poultry put in storage must be packed 
in boxes. The ordinary rate for cold storage of eggs is 40 cents 
per thirty dozen case for the season from March 15th, to January 
1st, on eggs stored prior to June 1st. On eggs stored on or after 
June 1st the rate is 10 cents per case for the first month and 
five cents a case for each month additional. The storage ware- 
house will advance from 70 to 80 per cent of the market value 
of the goods stored. It is estimated that 1,800,000,000 eggs 
or one-tenth of all the eggs laid in the United States are placed 
in cold storage every year. 

The regular storage season for poultry is from September 
30th to May 1st, and for this period a special rate of one-fourth 
to one-third of a cent a pound per month is made by most of the 
warehouses. A dozen broilers can be kept in the coolers from 
October to May for only 2 cents apiece. All poultry remaining 
in the coolers more than two or three weeks is frozen immedi- 
ately upon arrival and is kept as hard as a rock. The tempera- 
ture is kept at from 2S to 30 degrees, but the initial freezing is 
done with the thermometer at 12 to 15 degrees. 

FATTENING POULTRY FOR MARKET 

Fattening poultry by machinery has become an important 
industry in the last few years. Thirty-eight "feeding stations" 
with a capacity of from 3,000 to 10,000 birds each are in opera- 
tion in the middle west, and many machines are in use in eastern 
states. The machine consists of a four-gallon receptacle mount- 
ed on a tripod and so arranged that when the operator pushes 
a treadle a quantity of semi-liquid ground food is forced through 
a rubber tube into the crop of the chicken, the operator hold- 
ing the tube down to the bird's throat. The birds are kept in 
small coops and their crops are crammed full twice a day for 
two weeks. As a rule, they are kept in the crate three weeks, 
but fed from troughs the first week. Some fatteners do not 
use the machine at all. 

Crate-fed chickens are always in great demand at high 
prices. The crates in most common use are made of lathed 
or turned strips in tiers. A thin chicken weighing four pounds 
will by cramming be made six or more pounds in two or three 
weeks. If it was worth 12 cents when thin, it is worth 20 cents 
when crate-fed, per pound. The ordinary cost of putting from 
two to three pounds on the weight of a chicken has been found 
to be about 15 cents, and the average increased selling price 
from 75 ■ cents to a dollar. This accounts for the enormous 
growth of the poultry fattening business. 

At the Canadian Experiment Station 365 chickens fed in 
crates gained an average of 2 . 35 pounds each, and the average 
cost of food consumed was 5.27 cents per pound of increase in 
the live weight. This low cost of increased weight was secured 
when ground grain cost $1 . 20 a hundred pounds and skim milk 
15 cents a hundred pounds. The foods used were ground oats 
mixed with sour milk, skim milk, or buttermilk, and this was 
given in troughs in front of the crates, no machine being used. 

PRICES TO BE OBTAINED 

One dollar for a broiler, $2.50 for a roaster or capon, $3.50 
for a dressed turkey, $2.00 for a goose, $1 .00 for a duckling — 
these are not exceptional prices for good stock. The value of 
market poultry has increased steadily since 1901 and will con- 
tinue to remain high. The consumption of poultry has in- 
creased enormously. 

With a private trade of high class, excellent prices are ob- 
tained the year around — from 5 to 10 cents or even more per 



162 



MARKET POULTRY AND EGGS 



pound for roasting fowls and others that are sold by weight, 
being paid as a premium. Some of the most successful poultry- 
men with private markets place each bird or pair of birds in 
pasteboard boxes made for the purpose, and sell the chickens 
"by the box" — not by weight — at $1, §1.50 or multiples of 50, 
according to the kind of stock. For those who must depend on 
the open market the best plan is to write to the commission 
merchant or dealer and secure from him a list of the average 
prices per month paid for all kinds of stock, and then arrange 
to have the birds ready for sale in the month when prices aver- 
age highest. 

Heavy roasting fowls, capons, turkeys, geese and ducks are 
in greatest demand and fetch the highest prices from November 
to February not so much of this class of poultry being consumed 
during warm weather. In the summer, too, it is difficult to 
ship dressed poultry because of the trouble of icing it, and for 
this reason most of the stock from April to October is shipped 
alive. 

The great increase in the price of poultry during recent 
years may be shown from the following quotations for turkeys. 



From time to time these reports contain special instruc 
tions for killing, dressing, packing and shipping poultry, and 
we have drawn on this source for a portion of the information 
given in this article. 

In the best eastern markets, New York and Boston, and 
on the Pacific coast, dry picked poultry has the preference and 
commands the best prices. In the middle west and western 
markets as well as in some southern ones scalded poultry is 
required and is in greatest demand. This we believe to be 
due chiefly to the fact that dry picked poultry to present an 
attractive appearance requires the services of an experienced 
picker. The west and south is still comparatively new country 
in the production of high-class market poultry and outside of 
some of the large packing houses, experienced dry pickers are 
few in number and hard to find. 

In the east where high-grade dry picked poultry is in 
greatest demand and scalded stock almost "goes begging" for 
a customer, there are many experienced men who make killing 
and dressing market poultry a profession. The prices paid 
for their services vary in different sections of the country. 



January 17 to 18 

February... IS to 19 

March 16 to 17 

April.., 12i 

May 11 to 12i 

June 10 to 12* 

July 11 to 12j 

August 12 to 18 

September 13 to 16 

October ! 13 to 16 

November 16i to 21 

December , 




8 to 12 
to 13* 

13 
to 12 
to 10 
to 9 
to 10 
to 11 
toll 
7* to 9i 

9 to Hi 
10* to 11* 



These are for ordinary birds and when two prices are given the 
bulk of the stock was sold at the higher figure. Prices quoted 
for January, February, March, November and December are 
for dressed birds, and for the rest of the year, for live turkeys. 
The figures are those paid to the country shippers, and not those 
which the stock brought when bought by the butchers. Fancy 
turkeys were disposed of, as a rule, at 5 cents or more per pound 
above these figures, which were supplied by Howard, Bartels 
& Co., official statisticians for the Chicago butter and egg board. 
Broilers should be marketed as early in the year as possible, 
before the market is flooded with them. A dollar apiece often 
is brought for the best stock. Roasters find a good market 
throughout the year, except in the hottest part of the summer, 
and specialties, such as ducklings, young geese, "baby" turkeys, 
crate-fed poultry, or machine fatted fowls, are always in demand 
at high figures. 



KILLING AND DRESSING MARKET 
POULTRY 

DRY PICKED POULTRY IS PREFERRED IN 
EASTERN MARKETS — HOW TO KILL AND 
DRY PICK— SOME ADVICE ON SHIPMENTS— 
WHERE SCALDED POULTRY IS IN DEMAND- 
REQUIREMENTS OF VARIOUS MARKETS 

P. T. WOODS, M. D. 

Methods of killing and dressing market poultry vary in 
different sections of the country and it is necessary for the 
poultryman to make himself familiar with the existing condi- 
tions and the requirements of his particular market center. 
This is easily done if he will obtain the regular market bulletins 
from one or more of the commission dealers in the city in which 
he intends to dispose of his output. 



In nearly all cases they are paid on the piece-work plan, receiv- 
ing a certain amount per bird for all that are dressed, the prices 
ranging from 3 to 6 cents per head for chickens and from -1 to 
8 cents per head for ducks. 

In the vicinity of New York City and Philadelphia there 
are a number of famlies who devote the greater part of their 
time to dry picking market poultry and they derive a very 
comfortable income from this source. At Vineland, New Jersey, 
which is in the heart of a broiler, roaster and duck raising section, 
there is a family consisting of father, mother, two daughters, 
a son and wife, who make a business of travelling about the 
country dressing poultry for the growers in that section. These 
pickers visit different plants at regular intervals, the men doing 
the killing and rough picking and the women serving as pin- 
featherers and finishers. It is no uncommon thing for one of 
these pickers to rough pick 200 broilers in a day without tear- 
ing the skin, and it should be remembered that broilers are 
very easily torn. When dressing full grown birds that are 
reasonably free from pinfeathers these pickers will finish a 
considerably larger number. 

EARNINGS OF A SKILLED PICKER 

In the July 1905 issue of the Reliable Poultry Journal 
we told the story of an expert picker who picks South Shore 
Soft Roasters and made the remarkable record of earning 
S23.00 one week. $33.40 the second week, S34.S0 the third 
week, S36.44 the fourth week and S3S.56 the fifth week, in 
five successive weeks' work dry picking soft roasting chickens 
at 4 cents each. The record is all the more remarkable because 
in this case the picker finished tin- birds, removing all pinfeathers, 
cooled them in the water tank, hung them up to dry. and cleaned 
up his part of the picking room at the close of each day's work 
besides helping weigh up the finished product when the same 
were packed for shipment, and he worked no longer hours than 
the average working man. This is an exceptional case but there 
are many good pickers in the east who regularly earn from 
$15.00 to $25.00 per week. 



163 






SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



Duck picking is a more tedious process but experienced 
dry pickers are able to earn a comfortable income. The aver- 
age price paid is 7 cents per duck, and a good picker can finish 
from 40 to 60 ducks per day. In the August Reliable Poultry 
Journal we called attention to the fact that on one of the large 
eastern duck ranches the pickers were earning from S2.80 
to S4.20 per day. As all of this work is piece-work a skilled 
workman can usually earn very satisfactory pay, all depending 
on his ability. 

LEARN TO DRY PICK-IT PAYS 

Dry picked poultry is becoming more and more in demand 
in the western markets and as the call for high-grade poultry 
increases and the market poultry industry develops in this 
section, there will be greater opportunities for earning good 
pay in this line of work. The enterprising young man with a 
liking for poultry work will soon begin to take up dry picking 
and In- "ill !»■ aiming the first to reap the benefits. 

In the opinion of the writer the dry picked fowl when 
In --id by an expert, presents by far the most attractive appear- 
iihi , ami if we are to believe the testimony of many epicures 
and reliable housekeepers, dry picked birds are much more to 
lir desired as a table delicacy than the scalded product. Some 
may consider this difference an imaginary one but it is only 
necessary to compare the expertly dressed dry picked carcass 
with the scalded, parboiled, or partially cooked unattractive 
mi' - to acquire a decided preference for the dry picked article. 

Aside from this the dry picked bird will keep better, reach 

market in better condition, and none of its naturally fine Savor 
has been injured by contact with hot water, usually dirty and 

often decidedly repulsive. Even when the scalding is done 

by an expert the practice is an objectionable one and results 
Beldom justify the means employed. 

Dry picking is a comparatively simple matter, easily learned, 

and i. nee the operator has acquired a little practice, there is 
no mute need of tearing the bird during dry picking than there 
is after the carcass has been skillfully scalded. 

HOW TO KILL AND DRY PICK. 

Experienced dry pickers claim that the only trick in getting 
thi feathers to come "in easily is in the method of sticking. 
If the bird is killed properly the leathers will come out easily 
without tearing the -kin. It the killing or sticking is not done 
a- ii should be or if the bird is choked too much the feathers 
may cling as if they were clinched, and it will lie practically 
impossible l" get them out without tearing the skin. 

Nearly every experienced picker has his own particular 
meth.nl of killing and dressing. Along the south shore in 
Massachusetts the pickers for the most part prefer to sit while 
working and hold the birds in their laps. It is a practice of some 
to stick the bird through the throat immediately beneath the 
angle nf the lower jaw or mandible, then give the bird a sharp 
blow on the back of the head with a blunt stick or billy, the 
shock of the blow resulting in a nervous spasm that loosens the 
Lathers. The most expert, however, have discarded this 
method for the nicer operation of sticking the bird through 
the mouth, allowing the knife point to penetrate the base of 
the I. rain, accomplishing the Name result in loosening the feathers 
in a much more satisfactory manner. The writer learned the 
New Jersey method of dry | icking and much prefers it to all 
others, and will endeavor to describe this method of killing and 
dressing in detail. 

When learning to dry pick the beginner will get much 
more satisfactory results if he will practice on adult fowls until 
he acquires the knack of it. Select adult birds that are well 
feathered and practically free from pinfeathers, and the opera- 



tion will be a comparatively simple matter. After one or two 
trials the beginner should be able to remove all of the feathers 
in a few rapid movements of the hands. 

Make preparations for dressing the birds by having every 
thing as convenient as possible. Provide two barrels placed 
against the wall of the room or building in which you intend 
to operate, one for blood and waste feathers and the other for 
the feathers which are to be saved. Have a good sharp knife 
with a medium-sized blade; an ordinary pocket knife will answer. 
The chickens to be killed should be placed in coops within 
easy reach of the picker. The operator should roll up his sleeves 
and put on a large apron. We prefer to use a bran sack tied 
across the breast, just beneath the arms and again around the 
waist. This covers the clothing and is thick enough to afford 
ample protection from blood that may be spattered. A soft 
cap should be worn to keep the feathers out of the hair. 

Drive a nail in the wall above the center of the barrel in- 
tended for blood and waste feathers at a point a little higher 
than the head of the picker. Provide a loop of stout cord from 
6 to 10 inches long and fasten this to the nail. Make a noose 
in the lower end of this cord to be slipped over the fowl's feet 
to hold it firmly by the legs. When the fowl's legs are secured 
in this noose the bird should hang close to the wall with its head 
on a line with the operator's left arm when held in a horizontal 
position with the elbow against the side of the body. This 
position will be found to be the most convenient. If the bird 
is hung either too high or too low it will be awkward to handle. 
After a few trials the picker will be able to judge exactly 
what point is the most convenient for him to hang the birds 
and the exact length of the cord he should use. Do not hang 
the bird from a beam or pole in the center of the room where 
it can swing both ways, and do not hang the bird in a similar 
position fixing a weight to the upper mandible to hold it steady. 
Such practice makes the operation an awkward one and pre- 
vents getting the best results. 

With the bird hanging against the wall in the proper posi- 
tion as described above it cannot get out of reach should it 
struggle and slip from the hand, and it is always under control. 
The picker should stand facing the wall with his knees braced 
against the barrels. This gives him a purchase so that the bird 
may be held firmly when it struggles. 

The killing knife may be stuck into the wall or placed on 
a shelf near by. Some pickers prefer to have it tied to a cord 
fastened about the waist. 

STICKING 

Grasp the neck of the fowl with the thumb and forefinger 
of the left hand. Draw the hand gently downward until it 
strikes the angle of the jaw forcing the fowl's mouth open, but 
be careful not to choke it. Hold the mouth firmly open with the 
third finger. Introduce the knife into the throat and with a 
few i|iick motions of the knife up and down sever the large 
arteries at the side of the neck just below the ear, so that the 
bird bleeds freely. Now hold the knife at an angle with the 
bird's bill pointing toward the back part of the roof of the 
mouth in a line with the eye. With a rapid movement drive 
the knife through the roof of the mouth into the base of the 
bird's brain and give a quick half turn of the blade. This causes 
paralysis, renders the bird insensible, practically kills it, and a 
quick sudden shudder will pass through the fowl indicating 
that the feathers have loosened. 

Adult birds should be stuck much more heavily than 
squab broilers or broilers. As a rule with small chickens the 
twisting in motion of the knife should be very slight. If the 
sticking is too heavy or too light the feathers will not loosen 
properly. It is, however, a very simple matter and easily 
acquired with a little practice. 



164 



MARKET POULTRY AND EGGS 



BEGINNING TO PICK. 

As soon as the fowl is stuck the operator should begin at 
once to remove the feathers, taking them off as rapidly as pos- 
sible. Grasp the wings with the thumb and first two fingers 
of the left hand, holding the neck of the bird between the third 
and little finger, stretching the body a little downward without 
choking the bird so as to keep the noose and string taut. This 
gives the operator full control of the bird so that he can hold 
it firmly. Next with two or three quick motions with the right 
hand remove the large stiff wing feathers; also the stiff feathers 
at the shoulder joints. In removing the large wing feathers 
they should be grasped with the extended fingers of the right 
hand and pulled out with a quick downward movement. The 
stiff feathers at the shoulder joints are pulled upward. 

Now grasp with the right hand the tail feathers and re- 
move them all with one quick twisting motion. Pass the right 
hand rapidly down the back from the rump to the neck, remov- 
ing all the feathers with the thumb and forefinger pulling them 
downward. The bird should then be shifted to the right hand 
and the left hand used to pick the soft feathers of the abdomen. 
These can all nearly be removed at one time by grasping a hand- 
ful of them in the left hand and making a quick turn of the 
wrist throwing the thumb outward. 

Next remove all the feathers from the sides of the breast 
pulling towards the fowl's back and a little downward on each 
side. Remove the balance of the feathers on the breast with 
a downward motion. If the sticking has been properly done 
these feathers will all come out easily without any danger of 
tearing; in fact, in adult birds they seem almost to fall out. 
Again transfer the bird to the left hand grasping it firmly by 
the head and quickly strip the feathers from the neck with the 
thumb and finger of the right hand, pulling them a little down- 
ward. The feathers on the wings and thighs may be easily 
removed with the thumb and forefinger of either hand. It 
only requires a quick eye and a little practice to become an 
expert picker in a short time. It will surprise the beginner 
to see how rapidly and how easily birds can be dry picked by 
following this plan. Good pickers will often have half a dozen 
birds stripped or rough picked before the first bird is done flut- 
tering. 

Some years ago the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty 
to Animals investigated this method of picking in the state 
of New Jersey, and after going carefully into the subject and 
witnessing the operation performed by a number of expert 
pickers the society's agents were satisfied that there is no more 
cruelty in this method of killing than in any other; and that 
the suffering on the part of the bird is reduced to a minimum. 
It is doubtful if the bird experiences any considerable amount 
of pain, since the cutting of the large arteries is so quickly done 
that it could scarcely be felt and when rapidly followed by the 
sticking into the brain the bird becomes at once insensible to 
pain. Sticking through the side of the neck and clubbing on 
the head with a piece of wood is much more brutal and by no 
means as satisfactory as the method we have described. 

REMOVING THE PINFEATHERS 

The pinfeatherer will find it more convenient to hold the 
bird in the lap and should be seated on a stool or box conven- 
ient to the rough picker, or if the picker is to do the finishing 
as well as the roughing, he should remove the bird from the 
noose, seat himself in a chair and finish the bird in this position, 
AH long hairs and pinfeathers should be removed by the aid 
of the fingers and a blunt knife. The picker usually begins 
at the rump, cleans every thing along the back to the neck) 
then goes over the breat and abdomen, the wings next, and last 
the thighs, carefully cleaning up the whole fowl SO that the 



carcass is free from pinfeathers and looks clean and attractive. 
If there are any large tears in the skin these are cleansed and 
sewed up by the pinfeatherer. 

In pinfeathering a blunt half-bladed case knife will be 
found the most convenient to use. Should the crop be full the 
skin at the back of the neck is split and the crop worked out 
through the opening and removed. As soon as the birds are 
finished they should be thrown into cold water to cool. After 
all animal heat has left the body they are taken out, the heads 
and mouths thoroughly cleaned, the feet and legs scrubbed 
with a brush to remove all dirt, and the carcasses hung up on 
racks to dry. On some plants it is customary to have two 
cooling baths, one simply of cold water to remove the first heat 
from the carcass, and another, containing water and chunks of 
ice, into which the birds are afterwards thrown to remain during 
the hot weather, until it is time to ship them to market, and in 
cold weather until all the animal heat has left the body when they 
are taken out and hung up to dry. 

DRY PICKING DUCKS 

Dry picking ducks is a much less simple matter and re- 
quires more skill and patience. A good-sized shoe knife with 
a half square end made as sharp as a razor is used for sticking 
in a very similar manner to that described above for chickens. 
After sticking, the duck is then given a sharp blow on the base 
of the skull with a round piece of hard wood similar to the police- 
man's short billy. The bird is held in the lap, its neck between 
the knees, and legs and wings firmly grasped in the left hand 
and the feathers quickly removed with the right hand, with a 
sharp movement from the tail toward the head. In some of 
the more tender parts the pulling is done in an opposite direc- 
tion, or toward the tail. 

After the coarse feathers and larger pinfeathers are re- 
moved the carcass is rubbed over with a little water and shaved 
with a sharp shoe knife having a concave edge. As stated 
above the requirements in dressed poultry differ with the various 
markets. 

BOSTON, PROVIDENCE, NEW YORK AND PHILADELPHIA 

MARKETS 

There is very little difference in the demand of the eastern 
markets, Boston, Mass., Providence, R. I., New York, N. Y., 
and Philadelphia, Pa. Here dry picked poultry is always at 
a premium. Beginning with the new year there is an ever 
increasing demand for good-sized soft roasting chickens. Weights 
most in demand are those which will dress approximately 10 
pounds to the pair. Plump, soft-meated, quick-grown, yellow 
skinned stock are in the greatest demand. Late-hatched 
chickens suitable for broilers and weighing from 3 to 4J pounds 
per pair will also command good prices early in January. By 
the middle of January squab broilers or individual chickens that 
dress about 12 ounces to one pound each, are in good demand 
and usually command good prices from the middle of January 
to the first of May. Soft roasters bring the best prices between 
June 1st and July loth. The lowest prices for roasting chickens 
prevail between October 1st and November 1st. Broilers com- 

mand the highest prices between the middle of April and the 

middle of June; tin 1 lowest prices during August and September. 
Ducks bring the best prices from May 1st to June 1st and the 
lowest prices during July and August. Fowls as a rule bring 
good prices throughout the year, but lowest prices prevail 

during the latter part of the summer. 

Poultry for these large eastern markets should be starve I 
lor 12 to 2 1 hours before killing SO that the crop and entrails 
will be empty. They are sold with the heads on and entrails 
in. If tin' crop contains food it must be removed. For Boston. 

Providence, New York, or Philadelphia all poultry should be 



165 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



dry picked and thoroughly bled. They should not be stunned 
by pounding them on the back of the head as this causes the 
blood to settle and injures the sale. Scalded poultry will not 
bring more than half price in New England markets. 

PACKING FOR SHIPMENT IN HOT WEATHER 

Strong and sound barrels are best for ice packing poultry 
for shipment during hot weather. These barrels should be 
well washed before using and only clean ice should be used. 
Place a good layer of broken ice on the bottom of the barrel, 
then a layer of poultry beginning in the middle and packing 
in a circle with heads down, backs up and feet toward the center, 
then alternate layers of ice and poultry. Fill the barrel to 
within 6 inches of the top, taking care to have ice between the 
poultry and the staves of the barrel. Fill the top of the barrel 
with large pieces of ice and cover with clean burlap, and mark 
with brush or stencil. If to be shipped a long distance put 
in an extra large piece of ice on top. If properly packed the 
poultry can be on the road fifty hours without injury. Always 
ship by express in warm weather. 

COLD WEATHER SHIPMENTS 

I luring cold weather poultry can be shipped either by 
freight or express. It should be entirely cold but not frozen 
before it is packed. Boxes make the best packages and should 
be lined with paper and packed so closely that the contents 
cannot move. Never use straw for packing and never wrap 
the dressed poultry in paper. 

Mark the cover of the package distinctly with the kind 
and quality of the contents, the gross weight and the correct 
tare in plain figures. Have your own address on the box and 
see that the package is properly addressed to the merchant to 
whom you arc shipping. Never ship any goods to arrive on a 
holiday. Always place a duplicate invoice in every package 
and notify (lie dealer by mail of shipment, sending the original 
invoice in your letter. 

Yellow meated, yellow-legged, plump poultry is most in 
demand in the eastern markets and when cleanly dry picked 
and neatly packed commands the top prices. 

HALTIMORE MARKET 

Scalded poultry is preferred in Baltimore, Maryland, market 
and sells best with head and feet off. The birds should be 
scalded carefully and feathers removed without breaking the 
skin. The scalded poultry should be plumped after picking 
by dipping it for a few moments in hot water, not quite boiling, 



and then throwing the birds into cool water of the natural 
temperature where they should remain ten to fifteen minutes. 
When this is done cut off the head and feet and hang the car- 
casses up to thoroughly dry off. Be sure that all animal heat 
has passed out of the body before packing for shipment. Ship 
in plainly marked packages as advised above, packed tightly 
so that the flesh will not become bruised in transit. There is 
a light demand in Baltimore for dry picked poultry. 

BUFFALO AND CHICAGO MARKETS 

In Buffalo, N. Y., and Chicago, Ills., scalded poultry is 
in greatest demand and commands best prices. Care should 
be taken not to scald the heads. For scalding use water that 
is as near the boiling point as possible without boiling. Pick 
the legs dry before scalding. Hold the bird by the head and 
legs, immerse in the hot water, and lift up and down two or 
three times. Be careful not to immerse the head as it turns 
the color of the comb and gives the eyes a shrunken appear- 
ance, leading the buyer to think the fowl has been sick. Re- 
move the feathers and pinfeathers without breaking the skin 
and plump the bird as directed in preparing them for Balti- 
more market. Birds are sold with heads and feet on and en- 
trails in (undrawn). If crops contain food they should be re- 
moved. Expertly dressed dry picked poultry is becoming more 
and more in demand in these markets. 

ST. LOUIS MARKET 

A prominent dealer in St. Louis, Mo., says that careful 
handling and fine appearance of the stock are half the selling. 
When everything is plenty a fine lot of poultry will find favor 
and sell readily, while rough stuff will lie around and may 
possibly have to be sacrificed at a discount. The St. Louis 
market prefers scalded poultry carefully picked and well plumped. 
The birds should be bled in the mouth and are sold with heads 
and feet on, undrawn, the crops removed if they contain food. 

SAN FRANCISCO MARKET 

Dry picked poultry is in demand in San Francisco, Cal. 
No poultry is scalded for this market as buyers will not purchase 
it. The entrails are always left in and never drawn. Crop 
is only removed when it contains food. Heads and feet are 
always left on. 

Poultry should be packed in barrels or small boxes weigh- 
ing from 100 to 200 pounds. Large plump poultry is always 
in the best demand. This market differs from the eastern, 
southern and mid-western markets, as the birds are customarily- 
sold by the pair or by the dozen. 




16(5 



CHAPTER ELEVEN 

TURKEYS, DUCKS AND GEESE 

CARE AND MANAGEMENT OF TURKEYS 

TURKEYS FROM SHELL TO MARKET— USE OF TURKEY HENS TO HATCH AND RAISE 
THE POULTS — TREES THE BEST ROOSTING PLACE — NESTS — CARE OF SIT- 
TING HENS — FEEDING POULTS — LIBERTY TO ROAM — STANDARD WEIGHT 



MRS. HATTIE A. WELD, Gre'ely, Kans. 




'HENEVER I talk, write or even think turkey, 
it is a White Holland Turkey. Why? First, 
because to me they are the most beautiful. 
Any one who can look upon a flock of fifty or 
one hundred turkeys all white as snow — except 
the black beard and the beaks, legs and feet 
which are varying tints of pink, any one, I say, 
who can look upon such a flock without admiration, has no eye 
for the beautiful. 

Second: Their quiet, gentle disposition always wins friends 
for them. 

Third' They dress well for the market. We now have 
them bred to a size that can compete favorably with any va- 
riety of turkeys. But I will not stop now to give all their good 
Qualities. 

WHEN STARTING, BUY BIRDS, NOT EGGS 

Better begin with turkeys instead of just buying the eggs. 
A chicken hen will hatch the eggs just as well as a turkey hen 
and she will do her best at raising the .poults; but she does not 
wander far enough to give them the food they require and 
therefore they always lack the size of the turkey-raised birds. 
And besides, the lice that they get from the chicken hen are 
so much harder to fight and seem to do the little ones so much 
more harm than the regular turkey lice. To be sure neither 
kind is a benefit, but of two evils choose the lesser. 

Buy your breeders in the fall, if possible. November is 
the very best month as the turkeys are in range condition, not 
fattened in the least, and all you have to do is to keep them 
growing and in good breeding condition. 

One feed a day is plenty. I prefer to give that at night 
as this makes them range after cattle or other stock and gives 
them necessary exercise. But at five o'clock (as the days 
shorten, feed at four), I put a little wheat or oats in a trough 
and call them, that all may go to roost satisfied. Have oyster 
shell, grit and charcoal where they can get it any time. Also 
plenty of water as the turkey does not like to depend upon snow 
any more than other fowls do. 

We yard our chickens in October and leave the range for 
the turkeys as the two do not feed well together. 

THE BEST ROOSTS AND NESTS 

With us the best roosting places are the tree tops and the 
cohler the weather the higher the turkeys fly. They should 
have a shed open to the south where they may go during stormy 
days, if they wish. And they will greatly appreciate some poll's 
for perching under this shed. 



The first of February is none too early to prepare nest- 
ing places. We get salt or sugar barrels and scatter them 
around in the orchard, laying them down with open end to 
the south, driving a couple of stakes at each side to keep the 
barrel solid. Cover with brush and old hay, having the opening 
partly hidden. Now place a cozy nest in the barrel and a couple 
of china nest eggs and we are ready for Mrs. White Holland. 
Drive the hens accidentally (?) past these hidden (?) nests and 
see if you do not enjoy the performance of the hen that is about 
ready to begin laying. Her neck stretches out, she looks on 
this side and on that, goes partly in, comes out, goes in again, 
turns round and round and right then and there apparently 
concludes to deposit twenty or twenty-five eggs in that fine 
place at laying time. 

Or, if there is an unused stall in the barn, the turkey hen 
likes to lay there too. One year I had three White Hollands 
sit in the same manger upon 46 eggs and they brought out 45 
poults. The only trouble was when one hen raised up to turn 
her eggs, her neighbor upon left or right would stretch out her 
long rieck and with her beak roll under herself as many eggs 
as she had time to steal. So I had to fasten boards between 
the three hens. 

PROTECT THE PULLETS 

At mating time if your male bird is a large, clumsy, old 
bird and his mates are pullets, you may save yourself some 
unpleasant work by putting gloves upon him. Just get the 
heavy duck gloves that cost 25 cents for three pairs. Put them 
upon Mr. Tom's feet sewing fast above the spur with heavy 
thread. Leave plenty of room for his toes to clinch round the 
perch, being especially careful to leave room for the small back 
toe. The thumb and extra finger of the glove I bring up over 
the top of the foot and sew securely. Last year my old 35 
pound torn wore out three pairs — but I did not have a hurt 
pullet while he was wearing them. 

If one of the females does happen to be torn, anyone by 
using a little grit, a fine needle and some waxed, white silk 
thread can perform the necessary surgical work. First, cut 
off the feathers near the edges of the wound; next syringe the 
wound with warm water containing a weak solution of carbolic 
acid. Take short lengths of white silk and wax it. bring the 
torn skin up in place and hold it there. Now take a stieli in 
the two edges, draw close together and tie. Cut your thread 
and take another stich. It docs not take long to sew up a bad 
hurt and the turkey never moves. It will heal readily and 
hardly leave a scar if well done. A good healing ointment 
may be used to hasten the work. 



167 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



MANAGING THE CONTRARY LAYER 

Sometimes White Hollands begin laying in February but 
usually it is from March 15th to April 1st. If the weather is 
cold gather the eggs soon after they are laid and stamp the date 
upon each. Then you can set the oldest first each time. Turn 
the eggs once a day till you set them. 

If your hen does not fancy any of the nests you provide 
let her choose one for herself as she will not go far, and being 
"while" it is almost impossible for her to go to her nest with- 
out your seeing her. If it is an inconvenient place for her to 
sit, do not worry. Let her lay her clutch of eggs and begin 
sitting. I usually remove her to the nest where I want her to 
sit the first night she is broody, but it would be safer with some 
to wait till the second night. I have barrel nests arranged in 
a large, grassy yard under some cedar trees, both for shade 
and because I imagine the odor from the cedar to be a lice pre- 
ventive. Carry your hen gently, talk to her and put her in the 
barrel carefully. Let her see the half dozen nest eggs you have 
given her and press gently down upon her shoulders, if she does 
not want to sit down, rub some of the eggs upon her bare breast, 
continuing to press her down gently. Sometimes it is necessary 
to bind her Legs back carefully and hold her down for a few 
minutes, talking to her all the time. I have never had but one 
turkey refuse to si' upon the nest and that time I think it was 

because of my impatience. 

When the hen settles down fasten her in securely, leaving 
plenty of room for ventilation, and slip away. Do not dis- 
turb for two or three days (except to peep in to see if she is 
sitting), Now she is both hungry and thirsty, take her off 
gently and away she will go for the corn and water, and you 
want In have a good big water dish for Mis. Sitting Turkey 
always wants to stand in water while she drinks. I do not 
know whether it is to allay the fever in her feet and legs or to 
take the stiff feeling nut. I simply know her likes and eater 
tn them. I.et her drink, eat her corn and pick some glass. 

This gives you time in exchange the uesl eggs fur good ones, 

provided your hen has been sitting all right. I should like to 
say right here that I often give the eggs to two chicken hens 
and let, them sit upon them for :i couple hi weeks while the turkey 
finishes her clutch of eggs. In this way you get your poults 
:i COUple "I weeks earlier and the turkey makes just as good 
a mother as when sitting her full time, only you must be sun- 
she is down to business before taking the eggs from the chicken 

hells. 

Dust your turkey with a gooil louse powder two or three 

limes while she is sitting and alsn have a g 1 dust place in her 

yard. Do not use the powder tun near hatching time. 

CARE OF TURKEY MOTHER AND POULTS 

Fifteen or sixteen eggs an- enough for the turkey. She 
can enver more all right, but as nearly every egg hatches and 
the little ones grow so rapidly, il she has a larger brood she 
can not hover them so well in our heavy spring rains. 

And it docs not take 28 days for them to hatch. On the 
26th day you will have turkeys. Now do not -disturb your 
hen. The little ones come out of a small hole and the egg 
shells never slip over each other as chicken egg shells do, so 
there is no need tn interfere and it always makes the hen ner- 
vous to be bothered, especially if she is a pullet. 

If the mother turkey does not bring off her brood the sec- 
ond day, I generally take her off in the afternoon. Reach in, 
get hold of her legs, lift her straight up and out of the barrel. 
Then take the little ones out. If it should be a cold, wet time 
leave the turkey undisturbed till the third day. Take some 
of the shells from the nest, remove the inner membrane, crush 
the shell into tiny bits and scatter for the little ones to peck 



at. They will not eat much till they get so they can stand 
well. It is not best to try to rush them, as the old hen knows 
best how and when to teach them to eat. 

Their first real food is cottage cheese, made from clabber 
milk, with a tiny bit of pepper added but no other seasoning. 
Scatter this on a board near the hen, and she will hold pieces 
of the cheese in her beak for the babies to take. This is why 
I begin with the cheese as it seems their nature to look to their 
mother's beak for their first food. Feed only a little at a time. 
Here is where so many make a fatal mistake. You must feed 
sparingly for a few days but feed often. Every two and one- 
half hours is my rule. 

Their second feed is a few pinches of popular brand of 
chick food. I scatter it upon a nice smooth place, and sit 
down to watch the little ones eat. I pick up first one, then 
another. Beginning thus early they never have any fear of 
you, and my hens having been handled from their youth up 
fear no danger for their little ones from me. For a couple of 
weeks I alternate the cheese and chick food, giving three feeds 
a day of the chick food and two of the curd. Sometimes if 
we have continued rains so the little ones can not range, I omit 
the curd as it has a tendency to irritate the bowels if not bal- 
anced by green foods and insects. 

LET THEM ROAM 

Now, here many turkey breeders will differ with me but 
I give the hen and her flock their liberty at once, but usually 
take her some distance from other fowls as little turkeys follow 
anything that is moving. At night the mother will take her 
young back to the nest and she will get the last one into the 
barrel, without help usually, and she never crushes one as a 
chicken hen sometimes does. I say I give the turkey hen her 
liberty — and so I do — but I guide her to the pasture or a corn 
field or some place where the grass is not rank. And I do not 
let her out of the yard till the dew is gone from the grass. 

After the little ones are four weeks old three feeds a day 
of the chick food are plenty and probably the old hen has begun 
tn wander too far to come up except for dinner and supper. 
Now, too, begin to mix whole grains of wheat and kaffir corn 
in with the chick food. In this way you will teach them to eat 
the whole grains. Right at first they will not like it as turkeys 
do not like to change from one grain to another. By the time 
they are six or seven weeks old I am putting oats in, too, and 
the chick food is omitted. Some complain of oats but I have 
found no trouble as my turkeys always have grit, shell, etc. 
I think oats one of our best grains for making size. 

SHADY YARD AND OPEN SHED 

A week or two, at most, is long enough to let the turkey 
roost in the barrel. Remove the barrel and she will select a 
place near by for her brood. I think my big shady grassy 
yard has paid for itself many times. The fence is four feet 
high and no varmint has ever troubled the turkeys there. There 
is a low shed at one side, opening to the south, that, is covered 
with roofing paper so it is warm and rain proof. Rainy nights 
I put my turkey hens under this shed but during fair weather 
they want all out doors to sleep in. If a heavy rain comes up 
in the night it only takes a few minutes to gather the little 
ones into my big apron, and take their mother under my arm 
and run to this shed. I suppose there is little use in doing 
this as a turkey seems to know instinctively to choose a roost- 
ing place that is a little higher than the surrounding ground 
and her great wings are just like the roof of a house to shed 
water but I can sleep better if the flock is under the shed during 
a bad storm. I keep them roosting in this yard just as long 
as I can, but finallj' they go to the trees. 



168 



TURKEYS, DUCKS AND GEESE 



INSECT POWDER FOR POULTS 

I have not said a thing about dusting the little ones for 
lice. Try to put a little insect powder on their heads, under 
the bill along the throat, and along the quill feathers of the 
wings, once a week at first. Later I do this just whenever I 
can. During continued rains is your opportunity to fight the 
lice and you must do it, too, for at such times the turkeys are 
deprived of their main weapon against lice — their daily dust 
bath. Some use lard, vaseline, etc., but whenever I have tried 
greasing little turkeys I have always had a funeral, so I stick 
to the insect powder. 

SIZE DEPENDS ON EXERCISE 

When your turkeys' heads begin to get red you count 
them raised and begin to spend the money they will bring — 
in your mind. And I want to help make the pile as large as 
possible. Let the turkeys range as far as they will, for their 
size depends so much upon this; and they are as regular as a 
clock in returning home for supper at five. They will not miss 
the time fifteen minutes. Possibly this is because their owner 
is always at the gate and their supper is always ready for them 
just at this time. 

A BENEFIT TO CROPS 

One can't compute the grasshoppers, chintz bugs and all 
sorts of insects that a flock of turkeys will turn into cash, besides 
destroying mice, moles and even snakes. A "doubting Thomas" 
should follow the flock for an hour and I think his distrust would 
vanish. A farmer can readily tell which field of clover was 
hunted over by the turkeys by the scarcity of grasshoppers 
at cutting time. They will pick a tender leaf of said clover 
here and there but the fee they levy is very small for the service 
they render. Then take them in the cornfields — when the corn 
is too large for the plow. One has no idea of the weed seed 
they devour. Or turn them out on the field where oats or 
wheat has been harvested. The grain is always followed by 
a crop of fox tail and this weed is a delight to turkeys. They 
begin at the bottom of the head and with one effort strip nearly 



every seed from the stalk. A flock of turkeys is not a detri- 
ment to the farm but a benefit if one takes time to find out the 
truth. Ours never molest the grain or the corn in the shock. 
If they were starved to it, probably they would. But they are 
fed every morning (when I can hold them long enough) and 
always at night, so during the day it is insects and weed seeds 
for which they search. 

When October is with us and frosty nights and cold morn- 
ings come, the turkeys like to linger round the barn in the 
sunny places, but for your pocketbook's sake you must not 
permit it. By nine o'clock take a long stick in each hand and 
drive them to the fields and pastures. It will be no trouble, 
as turkeys drive like sheep — at least mine do. I keep them 
hunting the late grasshoppers and seeds till past ten, then I 
slip away. Sometimes they do not see me go, and keep on 
hunting. Sometimes they beat me to the house — but they 
have had their morning exercise and so have I, and both they 
and myself are benefitted by these rambles. I drive them to 
the range every day during October if they do not go by them- 
selves and my! the pounds of turkey it adds to my flock. 

PURE-BREDS PAY BEST 

It pays to raise pure-breds even for market. When I 
began years ago with White Hollands and marketed 9 pound 
pullets and 14 pound cockerels, I thought my turkeys paid 
pretty well. But now I find the cost but little more in pro- 
ducing 17 pound pullets and 26 pound cockerels. Then, too, 
if you carry a good grade of stock you can dispose of even,' bird 
raised for considerably above market price by advertising your 
stock. There are very few "culls" among turkeys. They 
breed so much truer to type than chickens. 

If one is ailing very much the balance of the flock often 
kill it. Inhuman'' No, sir. Instinct. The fittest should 
survive. And the largest, strongest, most vigorous male should 
be allowed to occupy the place he wins by defeating all others 
— the head of the flock. And I cannot help thinking our "Stand- 
ard Makers" are going against nature when they award "First" 
to a 26 pound cock over his 35 pound competitor of equal score. 
Anyhow, friends, you breed big birds and I will guarantee you 
five chances for sales where the breeder of "Standard weights" 
has one. 







Kill 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 




SUCCESSFUL DUCK GROWING 

THE PROFITABLE IMPERIAL PEKIN DUCK — ACCOUNT OF A VISIT TO MR. JAMES 
RANKIN'S FAMOUS MAPLEWOOD DUCK FARM— VALUABLE POINTERS ON INCUBATION, 
BREEDING STOCK, BROODING AND OTHER MATTERS OF INTEREST TO POULTRYMEN 



P. T. WOODS, M. D. 




r E do not know of anything that gives us more 
genuine satisfaction than a good long talk with 
a thoroughly practical and successful poultry- 
man who has had many years of experience 
ami who was one of the pioneers in the business. 
Therefore, when recently we found ourselves 
en route for South Easton, Mass., on a particu- 
larly fine day, we anticipated much pleasure and profit from 
our proposed visit to Mr. James Hankin who has been aptly 
named by the poultry fraternity the "Father of the Pekin Duck 
Industry in America." Our pleasant expectations were agree- 
ably fulfilled and we will mm endeavor to tell our readers some- 
thing about all that we saw and learned at this great modern 
duck ranch and home of the justly famous Imperial Pekin 
Duck. 

We were met at the Easton railroad station by Mr. Ran- 
kin's son-in-law and after a delightful drive over some fine 
Country roads arrived at Maplewood Farm, one of the largest 
and best equipped duck ranches in the country. One of the 
firs! things we noticed as we approached Maplewood was the 
excellence of the location and layout as well as the fine con- 
struction and stability of the farm and duck buildings. While 
Pekin Ducks are the chief products it cannot be considered 
an exclusively duck farm since other fanning interests are also 
well established and conducted. Hut the Imperial Pekin is 
there in all its glory and standard excellence and is unquestion- 
ably the farm crop of greatest importance, all other features 
being subservient to it. 

On our arrival Mr. Rankin met us at the door of the in- 
cubator cellar, and being particularly interested, we were at 
once conducted into that department to view 190 newly hatched 
ducks that had just, been excluded from 200 eggs left in the 
machine at the final test. Mr. James Rankin is well known 
in the poultry world and his name is always associated with 
the Pekin Duck Industry. About forty years ago he made 
his first start with ducks and ten years later he came promi- 
nently before the poultry public as an incubator inventor and 
manufacturer, and an advocate of artificial hatching and rearing 
of both chicks and ducks. The Monarch Incubator was devel- 
oped and manufactured by Mr. Rankin on his home farm, and for 



over a quarter of a century proved itself to be one of the most 
successful hot water tank incubators ever invented. During 
recent years owing to pressure of other business and because 
of the high cost of construction, and so necessarily high selling 
price, it was decided to abandon the manufacture of these 
machines and take them off the market. Nineteen of these 
Monarchs of 600-egg capacity each, are now in use on the farm 
and bringing off remarkable hatches of strong, vigorous duck- 
lings, besides two 300-egg capacity machines of a more modern 
make which Mr. Rankin considers quite equal in operation 
and results to his own invention. This gives Maplewood Farm 
in its two incubator cellars a total machine capacity capable 
of setting 12,000 duck eggs at one time. 

SAVING EGGS FOR HATCHING 

Naturally one of the first things we talked about was arti- 
ficial incubation, a subject in which the writer is much interested 
and one on which Mr. Rankin is well qualified to talk authori- 
tatively. 

He firmly believes in keeping eggs cool when saving them 
for hatching and recommends that they be kept at a tempera- 
ture of between 40 and 50 degrees Fahrenheit. As low as 35 
degrees will not injure the eggs and at 40 to 45 degrees they 
can be safely kept for three or four weeks before setting them. 
Eggs lose vitality rapidly when exposed to a temperature above 
75 degrees and are seldom fit for hatching when kept for more 
than three or four days at this temperature. This information 
coming as it does from forty years experience of a very active, 
capable and observing man should prove valuable to all poultry 
keepers who save eggs for incubation. Only well formed, 
medium-sized eggs with sound shells are used for hatching. 
As a rule the fresher the eggs the better for incubating pur- 
poses, but entirely satisfactory results have been obtained 
from one month old eggs, when they have been properly kept. 
While keeping the eggs they are not disturbed to handle or 
turn them. They are placed in boxes, baskets or cases and 
allowed to remain until needed for sitting. This plan has been 
found to give the best results. 



170 



TURKEYS, DUCKS AND GEESE 



COOLING OR AIRING THE EGGS 

For a long time in the earlier years of his business Mr. 
Rankin used to hatch with hens, the Pekin Duck seldom sits 
and when she does cannot be depended upon as a reliable mother. 
He found that where the hens were confined to the nests and 
only allowed off for a brief interval each day to feed, drink, 
exercise and dust, the results were better than where the birds 
were allowed their own sweet will. Further he made the inter- 
esting discovery that by protecting the eggs, covering them 
while the hens were off the nest, he got better hatches of stronger 
chicks and ducklings. This led him to believe that while it 
is necessary for the hen to leave the nest to feed and attend to 
Nature's needs, so allowing the eggs to cool, it is not proof that 
the eggs need cooling. Some incubator manufacturers have 
advised cooling or airing the eggs daily for the simple reason 
that the hen allows them to cool, losing sight of the fact that 
while it is a necessity for the hen to leave the nest it may not 
be helpful to the embryo. When the hen leaves the nest and 
the eggs cool, they quickly return to the temperature when she 
covers them again with her warm body and in a very short 
time they have regained their normal temperature. With an 
incubator it is different and it may require an hour or more to 
regain the lost heat. He firmly believes that cooling and 
airing the eggs is in a large measure responsible for the poor 
hatches obtained by some who employ artificial means. In this 
belief he is supported by the opinions we have heard expressed 
by many other experienced poultrymen. The eggs get sufficient 
colling and airing while turning them twice a day in all ma- 
chines where eggs are turned by hand. Where eggs are ma- 
chine turned without removing them from the incubator it is 
well to air them a few minutes at each turning. 

When operating in cold weather the doors of the machines 
are kept closed while turning, in warm or hot weather they 
may be allowed to remain open at this time. The eggs are 
turned twice daily beginning in the morning of the third day. 
The eggs are always turned by hand and their relative position 
in the trays changed daily to help offset any inequality of the 
heat in the egg chamber. Hand turning in this manner more 
than pays for the labor involved by the better hatches ob- 
tained. When turning eggs in a very cold room they are turned 
as quickly as possible to avoid too much cooling. Care is taken 
not to jar or shake the eggs overmuch while turning as the less 
shaking they get the better. 

TEMPERATURE OF EGG CHAMBER AND TESTING 

The temperature of the egg chamber is maintained at 102 
degrees with a thermometer on a live egg until the animal heat 
begins to get well established which is on or about the fifteenth 
or sixteenth day, when the heat is allowed to go to 103 degrees, 
at which point the temperature is maintained throughout the 
balance of the hatch. Readjustment of the regulating device 
is frequently necessary when running a machine filled with 
strongly fertile eggs, as there is always a tendency to a rise of 
temperature, and this is considered a good sign. 

The duck eggs are tested out after they have been incu- 
bated about seventy hours and all the clear eggs are sent to 
market. Mr. Rankin assured us that these infertile eggs brought 
a price equal to strictly fresh eggs and that they were really 
considered a superior article because of their keeping qualities 
Being so short a time in the machine they do not dry down 
appreciably anil in appearance are equal to any egg fresh from 
the nest. They are not in the least injured for any culinary 
purposes and will boil perfectly, which is considered one of the 
best tests of a fresh egg. In keeping qualities these tested 
out infertile eggs are superior to all others as they will keep 
in perfect condition for months, if kept in a cold, dry place. 



The sales of these eggs total up a very comfortable figure during 
the season. 

A second test is always made on the tenth or twelfth day 
and all eggs missed at first test, or those in which the germs 
have died, are removed. A final test is usually made on or 
about the 24th day. Whenever a dead egg becomes putrid it 
is smelled out and removed. These can often be detected by 
the color or marbled appearance of the shell. 

The wire cloth of the egg trays is covered with or replaced 
by burlap which is less liable to injure eggs and makes turning 
easier, as the eggs do not roll about on it as they do on wire. 
Moisture is used in the machines from the 18th day and is 
considered a necessity in incubating duck eggs. The usual 
method is to sprinkle the burlap on the tray and the eggs thor- 
oughly with water at about the temperature of the eggs, the 
object being to saturate the air of the egg chamber with mois- 
ture. 

On the 26th day the eggs and trays are made quite wet 
with moderately warm water and the machine closed to remain 
so until the hatch is over. The ducklings are usually all out 
on the 27th day and are removed to the brooders on the 28th. 

THE BREEDING STOCK 

At Maplewood they are carrying this year (1906) 1,100 
head or prime young breeders, and they have carried as high 
as 2,500. All of these breeders are fine lusty, healthy, vigorous 
youngsters. Mr. Rankin does not believe in carrying any con- 
siderable proportion of one or two-year old birds over for breed- 
ing purposes. He pushes all his growing stock for all that there 
is in them, and gets all the growth and eggs he can in the short- 
est possible time. The breeders are picked from the growing 
pens before the birds go to the fattening yards, and only the 
choicest and most vigorous, healthy specimens are selected. 

He selects his best drakes for next winter's breeders from 
the growing yards containing this year's January, February 
and March hatched ducklings. At the time these birds are 
chosen the flocks are in their best possible shape just prior to 
the final finishing for the market, and w-ill average to weigh 
about six or seven pounds each and worth at market prices 
from 25 to 30 cents a pound. So it will be seen that his breed- 
ing stock stands him at market prices from SI. 50 to S2.00 a 
head. Add to this the fact that these birds when selected are 
but eight to ten weeks old and must be fed and cared for until 
nine months old before breeding them, it is not surprising that 
breeding birds do not sell for less than S3. 00 to S5.00 each. 

Choosing the breeding ducks is done in the same manner 
but is seldom begun before the March hatched ducklings begin 
to develop. As a rule ducks will mature for breeding about 
twelve weeks earlier than the drakes, so that as a breeder a six 
months old duck compares favorably with a nine months old 
drake. 

We show herewith a picture of a flock of Imperial Pekin 
Drakes which our artist took for us at, Maplewood. This Bock 
contains nearly 300 fine breeding males, all early hatched youngs- 
ters that have been carefully selected as the pick of the season's 
production. Never before have we seen a more handsome lot 
of Pekin drakes in one bunch and it is extremely doubtful if 
such a lot was ever before duplicated, many of them going ten 
pounds and over in weight and all in the pink of condition. 

The Rankin method of selecting ducklings. t:iking the pick 
of the Hock to save for breeders as soon :is their £ood points 
can be determined, is a particularly good one and worth follow- 
ing. Raising as he does from 25,000 to 30,000 ducklings annu- 
ally this gives him ;i grand opportunity for the selection of the 
best sort of breeding stock for all essentials, including standard 
points, profitable tendencies as to development, size shape and 
vigor. 



171 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



NO WATER EXCEPT FOR DRINKING PURPOSES 

This duck ranch is unique in one respect that the breeding 
si nek do not have access to a water run. No water is supplied 
to .links or ducklings except for drinking purposes. The breed- 
ing houses are light, airy and well ventilated, and divided into 
pens of twenty-five birds each; five ducks to each drake, early 
in the season, and later on six to eight ducks to one drake as 
the males become more active and begin to handle the ducks 
more roughly. If too many drakes are allowed in the pens 
fit. in the breeding season, they are liable to spoil the appear- 
ance of the ducks by rough usage and make their heads and 
necks sore and bloody by pulling at the feathers. 

Tin- breeding pens are about 12 by 20 feet and have out- 
side yards about 20 by 100 feet each. There is a three-foot 
walk just back of the pens in the breeding house and separated 
from them by a low two-foot high partition. The birds are 
fed in tin- house near the walk, and all the water they get is 
one bucket to each two pens (the water trough is in the middle 
partition) three times a day, or but twelve quarts of water for 
eacli fifty ducks at each meal. That seems pretty closely figur- 
ing for water supply for birds that are normally considered 
water fowl, but the breeders were in the best possible condition, 
and we were given to understand that the fertility of the eggs 
w&s : ,ii thai could I"' desired or expected for the season of the 

year. Neither the old or young stuck ever have water to swim 
or bathe in. 

FEEDING THE BREEDERS 

Young stock selected for breeders are turned out to pas- 
ture as soon as possible in flocks of 200 each. Here they are 
housed in open sheds or shelters and ate fed twice a day all 
they "ill .ii ol 'lie following mash mixture: Three parts, by 
measure, heavy wheat bran, one part low grade flour, one part 
corn meal, five per cent beef scrap, three per cent fine grit, and 

all tin- green l I they will eat in the shape of corn fodder, 

Clover, alfalfa, oat fodder, or green rye. cut fine. 

When housed in the breeding pens in the fall the brids are 
put on the laying ration and from then receive a mash twice a 
day, morning and evening, composed of equal parts, by measure, 
Wheal bran and corn meal; ten per cent beef scrap; twenty per 
cent low grade flour; ten per cent boiled turnips, mangel beets 
or potatoes; fifteen per cent clover, rowen or alfalfa, green 
rye or refuse Cabbage, cut tine, and three per cent grit. At 
in. ..ii they get a light feed of corn and oats. Clean grit and the 
best quality of oyster shell is kept in boxes always before the 
birds. The mash food is never cooked and is always mixed 
with cold water. 

The houses are always kept clean and well aired. The 
breeding pen- are cleaned out and bedded frequently with 
meadow hay grown on the farm. The ducks appreciate the 
clean, dry bedding, and it is necessary to keep their feet warm 
and give them a dry bed. I'nlike hens, ducks do not need 
any incentive to exercise; they are always on the move and 
usually busy both day and night. On account of this ten- 
dency to be always on the move and talking about it, and 
because of their extreme timidity it is necessary to avoid hav- 
ing dark quarters at night. Lighted lanterns are kept in the 
houses and yards at night to keep the ducks quiet. 

LOTS OF HARD WORK IN DUCK GROWING 

While one of the most profitable branches of the poultry 
business there is plenty of good hard work connected with the 
conduct of a large duck ranch. It means early to rise and late 
to bed for the man in charge if a respectable balance is to be 
kept on the right side of the ledger. It isn't a business suited 



to the man who likes short hours or who wants to linger in bed 
after daybreak. The duck man must be up and doing before 
sun-up, when the first gray haze of dawn shows on the horizon. 
The ducks will be up and waiting for breakfast and it isn't good 
business policy to keep them waiting too long. They have 
lusty appetites and the clamorings of their empty stomachs 
will cause them to fret off good flesh or will affect the egg crop 
if permitted to go long unappeased. 

Mr. Rankin employs six men on his duck farm and he 
keeps them all busy. For himself he considers fourteen to 
sixteen hours out of the twenty-four a day's work, and he has 
been keeping this sort of thing up for a long time and is still 
hale, hearty and remarkably young and vigorous for his years. 
On one of our visits to his plant we reached there on an early 
morning train and found him busily at work hoeing the aspara- 
gus bed, having already finished the routine work for the morn- 
ing. Many years of strenuous farm life have not marred his 
health or activity and there are few men in offices today, fifteen 
or more years younger, who are his equal in physique. 

NO GROUND POISONING 

Although Maplewood has been a duck and poultry plant 
for forty years there is no evidence of ground poisoning of 
which we hear so much now in the poultry papers. Cleanli- 
ness and good common sense care of the farm are responsible 
for this freedom from the common evils attendant on the con- 
stant use of yards and houses for poultry and ducks. 

Maplewood Farm is very flat and there is no gentle slope 
to aid in the natual cleansing of the yards with each rainfall, 
but the soil is fairly well drained. Once each week the men 
sweep out the runs and yards and the manure so cleaned out 
is used on another part of the farm for fertilizer. In hot weather 
the yards are also swept thoroughly when ever there are signs 
of an approaching heavy rain. Otherwise the hot sun on the 
wet droppings would cause a very unpleasant odor. 

As soon as the ducks are out of the yards for the season 
the soil is well turned over by deep plowing, is thoroughly worked 
and planted to rye, clover, alfalfa, corn or other crops. One 
or two crops a year on the ground gives all the disinfecting 
needed. On this ranch they grow all the green food and vege- 
tables used and store away quantities of mangle beets, tur- 
nips and cabbages for the winter. Rye is kept growing the 
year round. Clover, alfalfa and corn fodder are grown in large 
quantities. Fresh cut, shredded green corn fodder is con- 
sidered one of the best green foods for ducks of all ages. 

BROODING AND FEEDING THE DUCKLINGS 

All ducklings are brooded in hot water pipe houses of the 
ordinary box-hover pattern with one flow and one return pipe, 
each 2 niches in diameter. 

It is aimed to keep the temperature under the hovers at 
between SO and 90 degrees and the house itself comfortably 
warm. There is always plenty of fresh air in the houses at 
all times and when the ducklings are two weeks old they get 
an outdoor run on green rye. The little birds are kept com- 
fortable, clean and well fed. Their runs and hovers are bedded 
with planer shavings. 

The water founts are galvanized iron and are placed on 
a wire cloth fastened on to a board walled pit at a level with 
the earth floor of the run so that any water slopped is quickly 
drained away and does not mess up the brooder house. 

For the first four days the ducklings are fed four times 
a day all they will eat up clean in twenty minutes of a mash 
made of four parts by measure of wheat bran; one part corn 
meal; one part low grade flour, five per cent fine grit. 

From four days to four weeks old they are fed four times 



172 



TURKEYS, DUCKS AND GEESE 



a day all they will clean up of a mash made of four parts by 
measure wheat bran; one part corn meal; one part low grade 
flour; three per cent fine grit; five per cent fine ground beef 
scrap (soaked first by scalding). Finely cut green clover, rye 
or cabbage is fed freely. 

From the end of the fourth week until six weeks old they 
have the following mash four times a day all they will clean up 
quickly: Three parts by measure wheat bran; one part corn 
meal; one part low grade flour; three per cent fine grit; five 
per cent beef scrap; one per cent fine oyster shells and a liberal 
amount of fine cut green food mixed in mash. 

From the end of the sixth week until eight weeks old, 
they have the following mash three times a day: Equal parts 
by measure wheat bran, and corn meal and fifteen per cent 
low grade flour; ten per cent beef scrap; ten per cent green food 
and three per cent grit. Keep oyster shells before them. 

From eight weeks until finish at ten or eleven weeks they are 
fed three times a day on a mash of one-half corn meal; equal 
parts by measure wheat bran and a low grade flour; ten per 
cent beef scrap, and three per cent grit. Oyster shell is kept 
before them. Green food is fed less freely until within ten days 
to two weeks of market time and then is omitted altogether. 
The birds are watered at feeding time. All mashes are made 
dry and crumbly, never gummy or pasty. As soon as the ducks 
are weaned from the brooder they are housed in the fattening 
sheds and yards to remain there until ready for market, unless 
selected for breeders, in which case they go out on pasture. 
The mortality among ducklings on this plant is estimated at 
not over two per cent of the sound, healthy ducklings hatched. 
All weaklings are killed when the ducklings are taken from the 
machine to be placed in the brooders. 

GRAIN, GRIT AND SHELL BY THE CARLOAD 

All grain, grit, shell and beef scrap used on this farm is 
bought by the carload. It takes a vast amount of food to keep 
this plant going in the height of the season. At the time of 
our visit the 1,100 breeders were receiving about fifteen bushels 
of mixed mash food at a meal. 

When the brooder houses are full and the plant is going 
at full capacity it requires 760 buckets of mash mixture a day 
to satisfy the hungry ducks and ducklings. These buckets 
average 12 quarts each, so that it means 2S5 bushels of mixed 
feed per day to run this plant in the busy season. 

Four expert pickers are employed by this plant while the 
market season is on. These men receive seven cents per head 
for picking ducklings and will dress from 40 to 60 ducks each 
as a day's work. 

Maplewood averages to market 200 ducks a day during 
the season which begins in Februay and ends in August. Be- 
sides this many hundreds of breeders are grown and thousands 
of eggs are sold for hatching. Pekin ducks are remarkably 
prolific layers and when once well established in laying it is 
not uncommon to get as high as 90 per cent egg yield from the 
flock. After the first few eggs are laid and the birds get in full 
lay the fertility is remarkably good. The ducks usually start 
laying in January and are well established and showing a good 
fertility by the middle of March, and they keep it up until well 
into June or early July. The ducks will average about 140 
eggs per head for the season, sonic making records as high as 
16.5 eggs. Young ducks will often begin laying at five months 
old but it is customary to endeavor to hold them back until 
they are more mature. 

MARKETING AND PROFITS 

All ducks marketed by this plant are hatched, grown, 
killed, dressed, cooled and iced mi 1 1 1 > • home farm. They are 



marketed when from nine to eleven weeks old. Mr. Rankin 
estimates that the total cost of raising duck meat, labor in- 
cluded, is not over 10 cents per pound at the present prices 
for grain. 

Marketable ducklings will average to dress six pounds each 
at nine weeks old and seven pounds each at ten to eleven weeks 
old. One drake grown last season weighed nine and one-half 
pounds when dressed and ready for market at ten weeks old; 
this is an exceptional record weight. 

The prices for fancy market ducks are highest early in the 
season and the man who beats his competitors getting into 
market gets the cream of the profits. This season had only 
begun when we made our last visit to Maplewood and it was 
too early to obtain figures on the market, but all the incubators 
were in full blast and the brooder houses rapidly filling up with 
ducklings. 

Last year (1905) the top price was 30 cents per pound for 
early ducklings and did not go below 15 cents late in the season. 
Mr. Rankin at the last of the season during July made but one 
shipment at this lowest price as he was able to control the market 
for his output, and for all other lots the lowest price paid was 
19 cents per pound. Boston market takes the bulk of the out- 
put of 'this plant although some few shipments are made to the 
New York market when prices are favorable. Last season 
sales of Maplewood ducklings averaged 20 cents per pound. 
At an average gross cost of production of 10 cents per pound 
this means quite a tidy profit. 

The buying public is only just beginning to get acquainted 
with the excellence of properly grown duck meat and each year 
sees a constantly increasing demand. With such generous pro- 
fits to pay for the hard work it is not strange that the industry 
is developing by a steady and sturdy growth. 

For a man who likes outdoor life and is willing to stay at 
home, work hard and keep long hours there is no branch of 
the poultry business that gives promise of better or more cer- 
tain returns. 

To Mr. James Rankin belongs the honor of being one of 
the first men in the United States to recognize the value of the 
Pekin duck and to help create the great market outlet in this 
country for specially grown, fed and fatted ten weeks old duck- 
lings. May he live long and prosper. 



TOULOUSE GEESE 
B. F. HISLOP, Milford, 111. 

Several years ago we decided that geese would be a source 
of income in connection with other poultry rearing. The 
question then was to decide on the variety we would breed. 
First we looked to the common market's demand, knowing that 
this went hand in hand with the fancy. We easily learned the 
market demanded the heaviest geese, also the fattest, and that 
the Toulouse came nearer this type than any other, hen. 
selection. 

There are drawbacks to all kinds of poultry rearing — one 
don't get from this "something for nothing" any more titan in 
another calling, but of all the birds we have handled, geese have 
the least, and they can -land pampering and heavy feeding 
and all the breeder needs to do is to see that they have green 
forage, plenty of drinking water anil a little grit; then he can 
feed any kind of grain he chooses and in any quantity. Of 
course grain for tin" young goslings should be in the form of 
mash and generous in quantity, in connection with green forage. 
etc.. but the adult birds may be scrimped on this if on.' does 
not care to fatten them. 



173 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



The young birds before in full feather must be protected 
from inclement weather, but the adults can live most anywhere 
at all seasons, open sheds or the shelter of buildings is all they 
ever need in our vigorous winters. 

During the summer the adults may be plucked at least 
three times, first at close of breeding season, the others as soon 
as feathers are in condition; this is when the quills of the small 
feather (no others should ever be plucked) are free from animal 
matter, like blood, etc. These feathers will pay for the bird's 
keep, leaving the price of fowl as profit. 

Geese are different from other domestic fowl, as it requires 
no high fencing to keep them confined anywhere; a big tight 
pasture is sufficient as they never think of flying over, and the 
adults are too large for small openings. 

They are only fit for the common market about three 
months in the year at best, November, December and January; 
rest of the season are thin, no matter how fed (we never tried 
stuffing them). The goslings are very vigorous with good care, 
seldom die, barring accidents. We say, a gosling hatched means 
a goose for market, and seldom miss it. To get the best size 
one wants to keep them growing all summer. We hatch the 
eggs and rear the young with chicken hens, as we find them more 
docile and easier handled. They are then very tame, regular 
pets, always happy and contented, while other young fowls do 
lots of crying around. < >ur goslings reach from standard weights 
up to as high as 20 to 22 pound females, and 23 to 25 pound 
males, in December. Average good birds, 16 pound females 
and 19 pound males, highest weights given are our exceptionally 
line show birds and fattened, although this is done on range 
and whole grain. 

We have never been able to supply the fancy market at 
good prices, sinre we have established our reputation to send 
wh.it we promise and cheerfully take back birds that are not 



satisfactory. True, we don't get as large sums for single speci 
mens as is often received for turkeys or chickens, but on an 
average (most all geese are good specimens in a well bred flock) 
we make as much and often more profit off of our geese than 
any other variety of fowl we handle. They are not as prolific 
when it comes to eggs and young birds as turkeys, neither to 
be compared with chickens in this respect, but the per cent of 
young reared to maturity is too great for comparison. 

Being large birds the ordinary farmer need not expect 
to rear large numbers of them, nor does he of any kind of stock, 
but every farmer could easily keep a trio or two of old breeders 
each year and rear all the young possible from these. The 
adults while not laying can run in lots with shoats or even several 
old hogs with little or no danger, or with horses and cows if 
there are a few nooks for them that the large animals can't go 
in. The old birds kept for breeding should never be made ex- 
cessively fat during the winter, if one wants best results in 
spring. 

Geese live to a good old age and breed well, young breeders 
are not as good as old ones. Toulouse are by many farmers 
called "dry land" geese, it isn't necessary for them to have 
swimming pools; it won't hurt them to but they can't be fat- 
tened to top weights when they do. Goslings should never be 
allowed to swim while in down, or when weather is chilly. 

The young birds keep changing in color until in full feather, 
then they remain the same, both male and female are alike to 
a feather, male coarser and larger, with more of a masculine look 
about the head, but one not familiar with them can't distinguish 
between the sexes nor can an old breeder until they about reach 
maturity; then their voices become different, that of the 
female, very hoarse and male squeaky; actions of birds also a 
key to sex. 

Geese in common market bring from 10 to 12 cents per 
pound; as breeders, good ones $5 up to $15 or more. 




174 



CHAPTER TWELVE 

PREVENTION OF POULTRY DISEASES 

BREED ONLY SOUND, HEALTHY STOCK 

IMPORTANCE OF FRESH AIR AND SUNSHINE— WHOLESOME FOOD AND PURE WATER NECES- 
SARY TO HEALTH— DON'T WASTE FIVE OR TEN DOLLARS' WORTH OF TIME AND MEDI- 
CINE DOCTORING A DOLLAR BIRD, AND SO RISK INFECTION OF YOUR WHOLE FLOCK 




S THE prevention of disease is of much greater 
importance than the cure so far as poultrymen 
are concerned, we shall devote this chapter en- 
tirely to a brief discussion of how to avoid 
poultry ailments. For those who care to go 
more fully into the subject and who desire to 
know the best methods of treating sick fowls, 
■we recommend a careful study of the book "Reliable Poultry 
Remedies" of the Reliable Poultry Journal series. In that 
book will be found all that it is necessary for poultrymen to 
know about diseases common to poultry. 

In the prevention of poultry diseases one of the most im- 
portant matters is to bear in mind the fact that "like begets 
like." You cannot grow good crops from poor seed, you cannot 
raise strong sturdy chickens from breeding stock that has had 
serious sickness or that is debilitated and out of condition. 
Once you breed birds that are not in condition or that have made 
■only a fair recovery from a serious illness, you start trouble 
that it will take several generations of careful breeding to up- 
root. To be absolutely sure of having healthy chicks it is. not 
sufficient alone to have healthy parent stock, the stock must 
have been healthy for more than one generation; in other words, 
to have healthy chicks you must have healthy grand-parent 
-and parent stock. Begin now to select and handle your stock 
with a view to breeding only healthy fowls hereafter. If this 
is given careful attention, in a few years, provided you properly 
care for your stock, disease on your poultry plant will be con- 
spicuous only by its absence. i 
j 

THE BREEDING STOCK 

Breeding stock must be perfectly sound, healthy, vigorous 
and active. Cured fowls that have once had a serious ailment 
should never be used in the breeding pen if the best results are 
desired. Examine all breeders carefully, particularly the mouth, 
throat, nose and eyes. Don't breed a bird that has a cough or 
that is seriously troubled with canker. Breeding birds should 
be plump but not overfat. They should be as nearly physi- 
cally sound as it is possible to have them. Fowls of either sex 
which exhibit a tendency to grow dark about the face, comb 
and wattles when frightened or startled, or after running, should 
not be used in the breeding pen, as there is in all probability 
something wrong with the circulatory organs and they cannot 
as a rule be depended upon to produce healthy offspring. Select 
birds that are good feeders, but don't use the gluttons of the 
flock. There are always a few birds in every flock that are in- 
clined to make hogs of themselves in the matter of feeding, and 
these are seldom good layers and almost invariably are poor 
breeders. It is best to make use of their gluttonous tendencies 
to get them fatted quickly and off to market. 

While it is true that so far as we know disease cannot be 



transmitted through heredity, it is also true that the tendency 
to disease may be handed down for several generations. For this 
reason it is absolutely necessary to breed only sound, vigorous, 
healthy, active specimens. Be sure that breeding birds are 
well matured. Don't use those which are exceptionally pre- 
cocious. Too early maturity is just as bad as too late maturity, 
Choose birds which mature evenly and well and show as far 
as possible good development at all stages of growth. Look for 
the bright eyes, red comb, smooth, dry, well-kept plumage, 
keen appetite and activity, which indicate the healthy fowl. 
If you pay attention to these details the battle is half won. 

NATURE'S BEST REMEDIAL AGENTS 

Nature has provided for us two of the best remedial agents, 
disinfectants, blood purifiers and health promoters, in pure 
fresh air and sunlight. Fresh air is of just as great importance 
at night as during the daytime. Many fowls that would other- 
wise be sound and healthy have their constitutions utterly 
ruined by cooping in tight, poorly ventilated poultry buildings. 
No poultry house should be too tightly closed at night. Some 
allowance should always be made for a liberal supply of pure 
fresh air. As a general rule fowls do best in any climate in cold 
poultry houses that are well ventilated or in open front build- 
ings, the so-called fresh air poultry houses. There are many 
types of these buildings and most of them will prove safe and 
satisfactory. The most essential feature is to provide a plen- 
tiful supply of pure fresh air at all times without drafts about 
the roost. Houses that are tight at the north end and east 
and west sides and have a tight roof, can have the windows or 
openings in the south front kept open for the greater part of 
the time, night and day through the year, in fact, the south front 
should never be wholly closed. In cold houses where this plan 
is adopted there will never be any trouble from so-called "house 
sweating," the birds will not be as susceptible to sudden weather 
changes, and the egg yield will be just as good as, and frequently 
better than, that of fowls kept in tight, close poultry buildings. 
Tight poultry houses will be greatly benefitted by having muslin 
screens substituted for a part of the glass in the south front. 
Use the coarse unbleached muslin and tack it loosely on to 
wooden frames which take the place of the upper half of the 
window sash. In this way fresh air can be supplied without 
danger from drafts, even in small narrow poultry buildings. 
Sunshine is one of the best purifiers and disinfectants that we 
have, and all poultry houses should be so arranged as to admit 
an abundance of sunlight to the interior of the house whenever 
the sun shines. 

WHOLESOME FOOD AND PURE WATER NECESSARY 

Wholesome food and pure water are of the greatest im- 
portance. Remember that the greater per cent of the fowl's 



175 



SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



body, and of eggs produced by fowls, is water. They need a 
constant supply of clean, pure, fresh water at all times. It 
should be drawn from a source from which we would be willing 
to take our own supply. Disease will spread through impure 
or polluted drinking water more quickly than in almost any 
other way. Where a good, pure, fresh running stream can be 
had it will serve well for watering the fowls, but as a rule running 
streams are not fit for drinking purposes. No stock should 
be permitted to drink from streams which run through foul 
barnyards and piggeries, or which receive the seepage from 
manure heaps, privys and piggeries. Neither should streams 
into which factories empty their waste be used for watering 
stock of any description. Where a stream has its source in a 
pure spring or springs and runs through clean open land or 
woodland, and is not contaminated from above mentioned 
sources, it may be safely made use of and proves an ideal means 
of watering, provided it is so placed that it will not receive the 
wash of crowded poultry yards. 

Drinking fountains should be cleansed frequently. For 
adult fowls 10 or 12 quart galvanized iron pails make the best 
drinking vessels, as they are easily handled and may be thor- 
oughly cleaned with very little labor. Good galvanized iron 
drinking fountains are best for little chicks, although easily 
cleaned ea'rthenware, glass or cast-iron water fountains may be 
used when convenient. It is seldom wise to allow more than 
one pen of fowls to water from the same pen or bucket where 
birds are kept in continuous houses, since by watering two pens 
from one receptable you simply double the chances of infection 
should sickness break out in either one of the flocks. 

All food should be sound, sweet and free from must and 
mold. Never use sour, musty or moldy grain. It is a pro- 
lific source of bowel troubles in both young and old stock. 
Cracked grains when purchased in this condition should lie care- 
fully inspected, as they are very liable to be musty. Fowls 
need a variety of food to keep their appetites in good condition, 
which means keeping them healthy. Grain may be supplied 
mixed or separately, and it is wise to feed at least two or three 
kinds such as wheat, corn and oats. Barley, buckwheat, kaffir 
corn and other grains and seeds may also be used to advantage 
by way of variety. Green food is of the utmost importance 
and some fresh raw food should be fed at all seasons of the year. 
The ideal w-ay to feed green food is to give the birds a good 
pasture on clover or grassland. If this cannot be supplied, 
furnish them with an abundance of raw vegetables such as 

mangels, 1 ts, turnips, cabbages and small potatoes, as much 

as they will clean up during the day. Vary this supply occa- 
sionally by giving cut clover or cut alfalfa. By keeping an 
abundance of green food sufficient for each days' needs before 
the birds all the time, you will prevent many common ailments 
and discourage feather picking. 

' lyster shell, grit and charcoal are necessary to the health 
of the birds, and should be kept before them at all times. < (yister 
shell is particularly necessary and it has been found by careful 
tests that birds supplied with grit alone do not do as well as 
those that have oyster shell and no grit, while those having both 
grit and oyrster shell do best. Charcoal is necessary as a cor- 
rective. The fowls will not eat more than they need of it anil 
it keeps their digestive organs in good condition and prevents 
diarrhoea. 

CARE OF THE POULTRY HOUSE 

Poultry houses should be kept reasonably clean. By this 
we mean filth must be avoided. A little dust will do no harm, 
but extreme dustiness is dangerous to the health of the birds. 
You will generally find more or less catarrhal trouble in build- 
ings that are exceedingly dusty. Sand or gravel is preferable 



as a filling for poultry houses to loam or other dusty soil. Road 
dust should not be used as it is necessarily of a filthy character 
containing all sorts of impure matter. Fowls will enjoy and 
take benefit from a good dust bath and such should be supplied 
in some sunny portion of the pen. Clean, sandy loam mixed 
with a little sifted coal ashes makes a very good dust bath, and 
the fowls will prefer it in summer time kept a little moist. 

VERMIN 

You cannot expect fowls to be very healthy and do well if 
they are subject to continued attacks of lice and mites. These 
poultry vermin must be gotten rid of if we are to get best results. 
With a little care one can enjoy almost entire freedom from 
these pests. A good liquid lice killer used freely about the 
roosts and droppings boards will insure freedom from mites. 
To get rid of the body lice on the fowl, dust the birds once in 
three months with pure Dalmatian or Persian Insect Powder. 
This powder should be made of the pure fresh ground Persian 
insect flowers, or Pyrethrum, and should be purchased of a 
reputable drug supply house. The price varies from 25 to 30 
cents a pound, and it is well worth the money to any poultry- 
man. In dusting the fowls they should be dusted thoroughly, 
working the powder well into the feathers down to the skin all 
over the body. If all birds are given a thorough dusting and 
a little of the powder is scattered in each nest, there will be no 
more trouble from lice for some time. We seldom find it nec- 
essary to dust brids oftener than once in three months, but it 
is absolutely necessary to use the pure, fresh, unadulterated 
powder. 

AVOIDABLE CAUSES OF DISEASE 

Among the avoidable causes of disease are poorly ventilated 
poultry houses, overcrowded buildings, crowding on the roosts 
at night, dampness, filthy quarters, impure food and water. 
the use of moldy or musty litter material, and breeding from 
unsound, unhealthy or debilitated stock. All of these causes 
can be avoided with a little care. 

All new fowls received should be quarantined for a short 
time before being introduced to a flock. Sick birds when found 
should be immediately removed from the Hock, and if seriously 
-irk had best lie killed and cremated. It is never wise to spend 
five or ten dollars' worth of time and medicine doctoring a bird 
whose carcass is only worth about a dollar at market prices. 
If it were simply a matter of doctoring the bird alone, the matter 
would not be so serious, but as a rule when time is taken 
to treat sick fowls the danger of infection of the balance of the 
flock is not reckoned with. If a sick bird is promptly disposed 
of and the carcass cremated the danger of infection of the bal- 
ance of the stock is reduced to the minimum. If the bird is 
simply placed by itself on some other part of the farm and the 
attendant goes from treating it to the buildings occupied by the 
other stock, or if contagion is carried in some other way, there 
is always liability of spreading the disease. 

As a general rule the best way to treat simple sickness in 
fowls is to provide a range for them on some remote part of the 
farm where they will be obliged to rough it in open front sheds 
with the roosts well elevated in the rear part where the birds 
can sleep free from drafts, but at the same time have the benefit 
of practically living in the open. Keep a mixture of dry grains 
always before these birds and plenty of oyster shell, grit, char- 
coal and pure water. See that they have an abundance of 
green food. Any that are worth saving will usually come through 
without the necessity of special treatment. The outdoor natural 
"roughing it" life will be all that is necessary to bring them 
round in good shape. Seriously sick birds had best be killed 
at once and the carcasses cremated. 



176 



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